


BrainDead Ficlets

by JillHayes



Category: BrainDead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-07-29 18:58:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 43
Words: 57,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7695637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JillHayes/pseuds/JillHayes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is what I think is going to happen based on the synopsis and pictures we got of Gareth and Laurel.</p></blockquote>





	1. Alternate Ending to...that night

Alternate Ending to...That Night.

 

"Ummm Laurel? Laurel?" Gareth shakes her a bit, when she doesn't respond he moves her so that he can hold her easily. He stares up at the ceiling, wondering what the hell had just happened. Laurel begins to stir under his arms, "hey Laurel, are you alright?" She looks up at him, then sits up quickly, "they're gone. Rochelle, Gustav! It worked!" They run into Laurel's room and Gareth immediately gets confused again. "I- uh, I think I'm gonna go." Rochelle throws her hands up, "no, Gustav and I will go, you stay." They quickly walk out and Gareth gets up, getting dressed quickly.

"Do you wanna tell me what that was about?" He sits down on the bed next to Laurel, "Gareth, I really don't want to talk about what just happened." He looks down, shaking his head,

"I think we should talk about it. I've had good nights, I've had bad nights. But that was…"

"Odd, yeah." He snickered a bit and then reached his hand over to her arm, "why did that happen? And are you okay?" Laurel looks as though she's trying to figure out how best to explain things. "I get these migraines sometimes, and I needed human contact." Gareth furrows his eyebrows,

"And if I wasn't here?"

"You were here though."

"Yeah, but…when you get these migraines what do you do?" Laurel looks a bit offended but also playful,

"are you asking if I sleep around?"

"No, no I just. I just want to feel like I wasn't being used tonight." Gareth stands up to fasten his belt and throw on his shirt. Laurel speaks up,

"it was great."

"It wasn't great, it was weird." They laugh and Laurel gives in, "okay yes, it was weird. What do you want?" Gareth sits back down on the bed, "For things to be normal. I want to talk and joke and take you out to dinner. And pay. And then kiss you on your stoop one night and feel awkward about calling you the next day. And then I talk to my friends and they tell me not to call because I'll come across as too vulnerable, but of course, I call anyway. And then we're I don’t know, happy and a little awkward on the phone together." Laurel nods,

"okay. Let's do that. Why can't we do that?"

"Because you were yelling at me to go faster while you ate chocolate and salami, but maybe we should get drinks sometime or something?" Laurel smiles at him as he stands back up, "I'd like that, yes."

 

He gets up to leave and Laurel grabs his arm, "please don't go. I usually don't get this vulnerable around a guy, but I would like it if you stayed for a little bit. Just to be sure nothing else happens to me." Gareth smiles at her as if to say, 'that's all I want to do.' He crawls back into her bed and wraps an arm around her,

"are you sure it was just a migraine?"

"I think there are bugs getting into people's brains and making them stupid." He sits up,

"is that a democratic thing or?"

"Gareth, there are ants that crawl into people's brains and eat half of their brain, causing different things to happen to them. I had them in my head and we discovered that to get them out I would have to enhance dopamine levels." Gareth unwraps his arm and leans over to where Laurel left her bottle of scotch, he takes a drink and then turns back to her, "huh."


	2. The Power of a Song

Laurel and Gareth had been on a couple of dates since… that night, so Laurel wasn't surprised when Gareth asked her to go to a party for work. She probably would've had to go anyways. "Do you want me to get you something to drink?" She nods as he walks over to the bar, and she continues looking around the party.

 

"Two old-fashioned please." As he waits for their drinks, he can't help but watch Laurel. As much as they argued, he loves being around her, being in the same building is enough for him. He takes their drinks over to her, only to realize she is now standing with her brother and Red. "Hey Laurel, here's your drink." She takes it and stands a couple steps away from him, her brother still doesn't know about her and Gareth. "Ritter, what are you doing getting my sister her drink?" Red and Luke's eyes are on him and Laurel is just staring at her feet, "I just noticed she didn't have anything so I thought I'd get her one. Is there something wrong with being a gentleman?" Red speaks up, "there is if you're getting the drinks for a democrat." Luke looks up at his sister then at Gareth, "Right, well I'm gonna go check on my wife, good to see you Gareth." They shake hands and a few moments later Red walks away giving Laurel a disapproving look.

 

"Well, that was enlightening." Gareth looks at her confused, running his finger down her arm,

"what do you mean?"

"I'm just saying, I'm glad they don't know we've gone out the past couple weeks. Your boss really hates me."

"He doesn't hate you, just your political views." Laurel just rolls her eyes at his comment, "how long do I have to be here? I'm starving, and the food is celery and carrots." Gareth laughs at how easily agitated she is,

"where do you want to eat? I can take you out after this."

"Let's just go to your place and order takeout." Gareth's phone starts ringing, it's his boss who is literally in the other room, "ugh I have to take this." He puts the phone to his ear,

"Red, I'm in the middle of a conversation with someone."

"Yeah, I need you to go organize the stack of folders from the grassroots campaigns on your desk instead."

"Red, I'm not working tonight. I want to go home and eat, not work."

"Upstairs. Now." Gareth hangs up and turns back to Laurel, clearly angry. "What happened?" He rolls his eyes and takes another sip of his drink,

"Red wants me to go upstairs and organize some files for him. I can't do dinner tonight, I'll take you out for drinks after work tomorrow to make up for it."

"I'll just come upstairs with you to keep you company. We can order takeout at your place later." He checks his phone again for the time, "are you sure? It's almost 9, we may not leave til close to 11." She nods and they walk out of the party and up to Gareth's office.

 

Gareth throws his suit jacket and tie onto the couch and grabs the stack of files, setting them on the floor. "I can't believe he's making me do this right now." Laurel sits down on the floor next to him, "you know it's because you were talking to me, right?" He starts flipping through the files, "you're probably right. I just wanna be at home right now though, I'm exhausted." He runs his hand over his face, "then why am I going to your place tonight? If you're tired, we can hang out tomorrow night." He drapes his arm over her leg, "no, I wanna be back at my place with you. I haven't had you over in a week. My apartment is extremely lonely." Laurel rests her head on his shoulder,

"then let's go now, do this in the morning when you come in. I highly doubt he'll come check that you did this tonight."

"You'd be surprised how much he actually works since he quit drinking, or whatever it is that happened to him." Laurel cuts in, "the bugs?" He shutters at the thought, "I hate when you talk about that, I can't believe that’s actually something happening. It sounds like the plot to a really bad horror film." He pauses for a moment, "you know what? If he gets pissed, so be it. I wanna take you back to my place." He stands up not bothering to pick up the files and move them, he grabs her hand helping her to her feet. "Do you wanna take off your heels?" She nods grabbing his shoulder to steady herself. He takes them from her to carry them before grabbing her hand with his free one.

 

"Laurel, don't worry about the leftovers, just leave them on the counter. I'll get them before I leave in the morning." She walks over to the couch where he's lying down, "why don't we lay in your bed? You're gonna fall asleep anyways." He grabs her arm and pulls her down to his level, "I just want to have 5 minutes of nothing, please?" Laurel lays down in front of him on the couch so he can wrap an arm around her, "at least let me put on some music. I hate when it's too quiet." Laurel reaches over to grab her phone and hits shuffle, "I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of-" Laurel immediately hits skip. "I like that song, why'd you skip it?" Gareth says with a smirk on his face, "I'm not playing that song ever again. I now hate that song." Gareth grabs her phone from her, "Please? I have vivid memories with that song." He hits play on her phone and brings his lips to her shoulder, "they're not great memories, Gareth, they're awful." He takes his lips from her shoulder to her neck, "Laurel, that wasn't awful, just weird." She gets up off the couch, unwrapping herself from him, "I have to head home, I gotta get up early for work. Luke has been on my case the past week." Gareth is clearly upset by the fact that he basically whines his plea for her to stay, "Laurel come on, just stay the night." She grabs her phone and purse, "Gareth, I can't maybe another night, you're too tired. Go to bed." He had a couple glasses of wine and a couple other drinks at the party, so he was slightly tipsy. "Laurel, come on." "I'm leaving Gareth, I'll see you at work if something happens or whatever." She bends down and places a quick kiss on his lips and heads out as he falls asleep on the couch.


	3. Trouble with Onofrio Part 1

Gareth finds himself in Laurel's office, waiting for her, again. "Gareth?" He looks up to see Luke, not really who he was looking for, but not a complete loss, "have you seen Laurel? I have some files she was asking for." He extends the envelope of files to Luke, "no, she should've been in an hour ago and she's not answering her phone, I figure she's still asleep." Gareth nods and heads back to his office. Once he's up there, he decides that it's completely unlike Laurel to not answer her phone, sure sometimes she's late; but an hour? Never. He picks up his phone and calls her. When she doesn't answer, he starts getting a bit worried, "Red, I'm taking an early lunch!" He yells into Red's closed office. 

When Gareth makes it to Laurel's apartment, the lights are on and the door is unlocked. "Laurel? Are you in here?" He whispers just enough to where she might be able to hear him if she's there. He looks around after he doesn't hear anything, her phone is on the couch and it looks like a mess. Her apartment is never unclean, the few times he'd been here it was extremely tidy. "Laurel?" He once again doesn't hear anything until there's a muffled crying in her bedroom. "Laurel?!" He says, a bit louder and more concerned this time. He opens the door to her room and is greeted by a tied up Laurel, bruising and red faced Laurel. "Oh my god, what the hell happened?" He asked as he unties her and then carefully removes the duct tape from her mouth, "Gareth, thank god." She wraps her arms around his neck and he holds her carefully, still worried about her injuries. He pulls away and places a hand on her cheek, "Laurel, who did this?" She starts tearing up again, shaking her head not wanting to admit who did it to him. "Hey hey hey, it’s okay. Do you not know who it was?" She shakes her head again, "it was him, you were right about him." Gareth was too angry to be in an 'I told you so' mood. "Laurel, let's go into the bathroom and clean you up, okay?" He grabs her arm and helps her to her feet, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." He gets her into the bathroom and helps her sit down on the edge of the bathtub, "don't apologize, I was being a jerk. I shouldn't have pushed it so much." He reaches up into her medicine cabinet and gets the first aid kit down, "where is it the worst?" She turns a bit, lifting her shirt off where she can reveal a mild burn on her back, "Jesus, what did he do to you?" She takes his hand to squeeze it when he applies cream to her back, which stings more than he thought it would. "Sorry, you alright?" She reluctantly nods her head, "should we call Rochelle?" He asks considering she's still squeezing his hand with what feels like, every amount of strength in her body. "No, it'll be okay." Gareth grabs his phone from his jacket, "I'm not a doctor, Laurel, are you sure?" She nods telling him to put his phone away. "Alright, let me take my jacket off." He shrugs it off and rolls his sleeves up, "okay, where else?" He moves to her wrists which are cut up from being tied up and then to her other cuts and things. "Okay Laurel, I'm gonna go get you some ice for your bruises and everything, alright?" He runs into the kitchen and gets a couple ziploc bags of ice full and goes back into the bathroom, "do you want to go on the couch or your bed?" "The couch, please." He helps her off the bathtub and into the living room where he carefully helps her sit down on the couch, "here, put this one on your face. I'll hold this one on your burn on your back." He hands her a bag of ice then holds the other on her back, where she makes a sound of discomfort, "shit, I'm sorry." "No, don't worry about it. It feels good now." He reaches behind him where there's a blanket laying on the back of the couch, "here, lie down." He moves so she can lay down on him. He keeps the ice on her back and pulls the blanket over her as she closes her eyes. 

"Hey, I need you to report an agent." Laurel opens her eyes when she hears Gareth talking to someone, "what are you doing?" He rubs her arm soothingly to tell her not to worry, "he's about to lose his job." She sits up, "Gareth, stop it. Hang up right now." He excuses himself from who he's talking to and hangs up, "Laurel, he can't keep his job after what he did to you." She holds her hand to her head, indicating it's hurting her. "Just please don't tell them it was me, don't tell them any of that, please Gareth." He reaches his hand up under head, caressing it lightly, "okay. If that's what you want. Lie back down if your head is bothering you." She lies back down, her head on his chest, she wraps an arm around his body. 

"Laurel, wake up." When she opens her eyes she see Luke crouched down, "hey, what happened?" Gareth walks in from the kitchen with some coffee, "Onofrio happened." Luke takes a cup of coffee from Gareth and he gives the other one to Laurel, "Onofrio did this? I liked that guy, I'm gonna kill him." Laurel looks up at Gareth, "He reported him this morning already." Gareth sits down next to Laurel and Luke looks at him, slightly confused, but also grateful, "thanks man, wait, when did you get here?" "About half an hour after I left your office this morning." Luke starts looking a little more angry now, "And you didn't think to call me?" Laurel stops him, "Gareth knew I wouldn't want you to leave work for me." Luke doesn't look entirely convinced but doesn't question it, "I want you to either stay at my place or call Rochelle to come stay with you." Laurel rolls her eyes at him and Gareth decides it's a good time to speak up, "Actually, I was gonna stay with her tonight to make sure she's alright." Luke is now the one rolling his eyes as he gives in and heads out of her apartment. "You don't have to stay, Gareth. I'm fine being on my own." He shakes his head and moves her shirt up to check on the burn, "Laurel, you can't treat this on your own. I'm staying here, are you hungry? You have yet to eat today." Laurel grabs her phone on the coffee table and dials a number, "Who are you calling?" She covers the speaker on her phone, "I'm ordering pizza." 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laurel wakes up to Gareth standing in her bedroom doorway, "were you watching me sleep?" He shakes his head, chuckling, "I made you some breakfast, but first, can I check on your back?" She sits up and he moves over to her bed, "does it hurt?" She nods slightly, "okay, I won't touch it unless I have to." He lifts her sleep shirt and it's not gotten any better, but it's also not worse. "I am gonna have to put something on it, Laurel." He goes back into the bathroom and gets more cream. "Let me know if it hurts, okay?" Once it's on her back she takes in a breath, "shit, that stings." He goes back into the bathroom and gets the first aid kit, "I'm gonna put a bandage over it, cause I'm afraid if something touches it, it'll get infected." He bandages her up and then brings her the breakfast he made her. "Okay, I have to go to work, are you going in today?" She nods finishing her food, "can you wait for me? I don't feel up to driving today." He takes her plate from her, "yeah, get ready and I'll drive you." 

"I'll come get you for lunch, okay? If something happens, call me." Laurel rolls her eyes at him, "You do know that it's not your job to take care of me, right?" He nods, leaning in and grabbing her waist, "I know, I just am worried about you, that's all. But maybe at lunch, we could have a conversation I've been meaning to have with you? I really want to talk about us." Laurel nods, giving him a quick kiss before anyone can walk into her office.


	4. Trouble with Onofrio Part 2

Gareth once again ends up in Laurel's office, only this time it's not for work. He knows she's safe after the almost torture incident, but he needs to talk to her. "I'm Gareth Ritter, I'm here for Laurel. Is she busy?" Scarlett barely looks up at him and says nothing, "I'll take that as a 'no'." He walks ahead and knocks on Laurel's door, when she doesn't answer he opens it and walks in, "Oh, hey Gareth." He shuts the door and moves over to her desk, "Hey, umm, I wanted to see you after that thing with the FBI, but I didn't know if you'd want to see me so I tried to keep my distance." Laurel gets up and walks over to him, wrapping her arms around him, he returns the hug, comforting her. "Luke told me what you did, thank you." He pulls away, "Laurel, I couldn't let them do anything to you." He doesn't remove his hand from her waist after the hug, "Gareth, I didn't realize you cared so much." He nods to her and then removes his hand from her waist, "well, I just wanted to make sure you're doing okay. I'm glad you're alright." She stops him before he can walk out of her office, "Gareth, do you want to meet for lunch? At the bench we talked at the first time?" He nods and says, "I'll meet you at noon with food."

"I figured you'd like pizza, everyone likes pizza." He opens the box and hands her a drink, "I love pizza, thanks." Gareth watches as she takes the biggest bite of pizza he's ever seen.  
"So, why'd you want to meet?"  
"I wanted to see you, I don't know."  
"Laurel, you know I like you, you can call this a date if you want." He takes a bite of his pizza then looks at her, smirking. "Laurel, are you sure you're all right after everything?" She shakes her head and then lays it on Gareth's shoulder, "I just don't know what they wanted from me." Gareth sets his food down and reaches to her hand, taking it in his, "Onofrio just was after you because he was angry for you beating the shit out of him, okay? Don't feel bad, how's your back and everything healing?" She lifts her head up, "it's sore, but better." Gareth nods his head, "good. Well, I should get back to work, do you want to get dinner tonight?" Laurel shakes her head then throws her pizza crust into the box, "Can you just bring Chinese over to my place? I don't feel like going out." He nods and throws the pizza away, "I'll be over at 7."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laurel opens the door to Gareth with a stupid grin on his face, holding up a bag of food. "I just guessed on what you'd like, I forgot to ask. Sorry." He sets the bag down on her counter and takes out the food. "I'll eat literally anything, I'm starving." He hands her the food and takes his own going over to the table.  
"Long day?" Gareth asks as he takes a bite of his food.  
"Sort of, Luke is trying to get Anthony fired and they don't believe anything going on with the bugs, so it's kinda difficult."  
"Yeah, it's a lot of information without enough evidence."  
"You know what, you're right, it's all just a crazy theory." Gareth grabs Laurel's hand, "Laurel, that's not what I meant. I just mean the FBI is insane, they have to have a ridiculous amount of evidence before they can fire him." Laurel takes her hand from his and continues eating, "but, you don't believe me. Do you?" Gareth looks down at his food,  
"I don't know what I believe, but I support you. I do."  
"Gareth, it's hard to support me on this, if you don't believe me." Gareth stands up and grabs Laurel's hand, "come sit with me in here." He pulls her over to the couch in the living room.

"Laurel, I want to help you. Let me help you." He pulls her onto his lap, "I don't know. Your boss would hate if you were helping me with something. He hates me." Gareth kisses down her shoulder, "Laurel, I don't care. I went against him during the torture debate, didn't I?"


	5. The New Normal

Laurel and Gareth had gotten used to a certain routine; lunch or dinner (after work) on their bench or at her place, maybe a little tv if they're at her apartment, sex, cuddle, late night snack or drink, either Gareth spends the night or he leaves in time to get enough sleep for the next day of work. They both loved it because it didn't pressure them. They both knew they wanted more, but what that was was unclear. However, there was something always on Laurel's mind that she never brought up until it just fell out of her mouth one night while he was holding her. "Why have I never seen your place?" Gareth's hand stops where it's at on her head, "What?" he tries to play it off like it's really not a big deal, "Gareth, we've been doing this for months and I've never seen your place? I think it's a little odd." He peels himself away from her and sits on the edge of the bed, sheets covering most of his lower half as one leg is folded in and the other hangs off the bed, "Laurel, why do you need to see my apartment?" She comes up behind him, resting her head on his shoulder with her arms wrapped around him, "I thought we were more than just screwing around, you know? I want to get to know you. The Gareth Ritter from North Judson Indiana, who probably played baseball and was nerdy and loved going fishing with his dad." He places a kiss on her arm and chuckles lightly, "how do you know so much about me, while not knowing anything at all?" She laughs, kissing his shoulder, "you're from Indiana, not too difficult to guess." He pulls her arm a bit, signaling for her to sit on his lap, "come here, Laurel, let's talk." She repositions herself to where he can wrap his arms around her, which is how he is most comfortable. It's something about having her in his arms that makes him feel like he can keep her safe, which is how he wants it after everything she's been through recently. "I have a little sister, she's 17, she has autism and she is my favorite person in the whole world. She loves horses, so whenever I go back to visit, I like to take her riding, when I still lived at home I would take her riding twice a week. My mom owns a clothing store downtown that she's had since she was 22, my dad owns a towing company, that was given to him from his dad and so on before him, that is spread all over the state and in a couple cities in surrounding states. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to go to college for baseball, but as much as I loved it I couldn't bring myself to do that forever. In the 8th grade, I got to go on the class trip to Washington D.C., we visited the White House and the capitol building, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen or done in my life. I knew that's where I wanted to work." He takes a minute before continuing, as he reminisces, he doesn't even realize that he's holding her a bit tighter now, "when I got my job working for Red, my grandparents were proud, but hated that I was leaving Indiana. They told me that as long as I worked with him, they'd never forgive me for abandoning the family and the family business." Tears begin forming in his eyes and he starts unknowingly rubbing his thumb along Laurel's arms. "Gareth..." He starts talking again, "so now whenever I go back to Indiana for holidays and breaks and things, they won't even look at me." He repeatedly places kisses on her shoulder and rests his cheek on her back. "Gareth, you didn't have to tell me all of that. But, thank you for sharing your life with me." He grips her a bit tighter, pulling her in a hug from behind essentially, "I just want you to know, that this isn't just screwing around for me, it's a serious committed relationship. It's my only normal in my life, Laurel. I love being around you so much." She moves to face him, straddling him, "Gareth, thank you, that's what I want this to be, but I feel like you don't trust me." He kisses her softly, "Laurel I do trust you, it's just that my apartment isn't really somewhere I like spending my time, I don't know why, I just prefer being here. I like being around you." 

"Hey, is Laurel in? I have those files you called and asked for." Gareth holds out the envelopes in front of him, "Yes, let me just see if she's busy." He stands there waiting for a moment until she opens her office door, "hey, Gareth, come in. Do you have all of the envelopes?" He holds them out, "perfect, let me take those to Luke. You can sit at my desk while I go over there." He walks into her office and closes the door behind him while she goes to her brother upstairs in his meeting. He sits down in her chair, making himself comfortable. A few minutes later she comes back in, "sorry about that, he wanted to add a few things to my to-do list." Gareth stands up and goes over to her, wrapping his arms around her body, engulfing her in a hug. "I just wanted to hold you for a minute, I'm sorry." He says after pulling away. "No worries, what's wrong? Did something happen?" He shakes his head, "no, but do you want to come to dinner tonight, at my place?" She smiles at him, it's a small smile, but to him it's a yes to his question, "oh wait, after the party for that thing my brother is hosting, is that okay? You could be my date." He nods and quietly agrees to it. "I'll pick you up at 7."


	6. After the Goodbye

Laurel's been back in LA for 3 months now, Gareth missed her more than he cares to admit. They still talk but she told him to move on and find someone else until she came back, and if they still wanted to be together, they would. Gareth had slept around the first couple of weeks, trying to get over her, but it's impossible to get over someone you love that much. Love? Is that what they had? Maybe it was, maybe neither of them wanted to admit it. Laurel hadn't stopped thinking about him the entire time either, she had gone on dates, some she slept with, but for the most part; nothing. One day, Gareth runs into Luke, who secretly knew about him and Laurel, Gareth had been avoiding Luke like the plague, anything he had to go to the democrats for, he'd give to his secretary or his intern. "Gareth, how are things going?" Gareth keeps it short and simple, "they're going, I guess." Then, he does something he doesn't even mean to do, "how's Laurel? I've not been able to stop thinking about her since she left. Is she okay?" Luke laughs at him, not in a rude way of course, "Gareth, calm down a bit. Laurel is fine, she's actually coming to visit next week, she's been asking about you too." He unknowingly smiles at Luke's comment, as Luke is about to walk away, Gareth stops him, "Luke, can you let her know that I'm thinking about her and hope her films are going well." Luke turns back around, "why don't you tell her yourself? She's stopping by here on Monday morning, just come say hi." He rolls his eyes and walks back toward his office. 

When Gareth sees her, he genuinely can't hold it in any longer, and apparently neither can Laurel because she hugs him, just before he can do anything. "I missed you so much, Laurel." he breathes into her hair, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." He says as he pulls away from her. "No, don't apologize, I missed you a lot too." She takes his hand and pulls him into his office from the waiting room they were currently in, "I don't wanna see anybody else, I haven't stopped thinking about you for months. I haven't gotten any of my films even written out because all I could think about was you." Gareth pulls her in and kisses her, hard. He pulls away and holds her face in his hands, "I've been waiting since our last kiss to do that, I missed you so much, Laurel. Please don't go back to LA, stay here and work on your documentaries." She kisses him again and she can feel his smile, "Gareth, I don't have a way to make them here, the company I work for, wouldn't let me." He pulls her to the couch to sit down, "please, Laurel, I can't go another 3 months not seeing you, or holding you, or kissing you, just please think about it." She gives into him, falling onto his lips again, "Gareth, I want to live here again where I can be with you, but what happens when I'm not even working? I can't just not work anymore, I love it too much." He strokes her arm and whispers, "what about your job with your brother, didn't you love that one too?" She nods, "I guess so, it's just not what I thought I'd be doing with my life." Gareth tries the filmmaking in D.C. thing again, "come on, like there isn't enough to make films about in this city? You could make your brother's campaign video and work with him on stuff." She responds with a 'maybe' and they decide to go out for brunch since he's not working right now. 

"Laurel, were you dating anyone in LA?" She shakes her head, laughing a bit, "I went on a few dates, but nothing really serious, no. What about you?" He shrugs his shoulders, "the same, I guess. Drunken one night stands, for the first few weeks, but I was just trying to forget you. Nothing helped though." He reaches across the table for her hand, "I really did miss you Laurel, and you being gone gave me the perfect opportunity to figure out what I want. I want you, Laurel. I love you." She looks shocked at first, then her expression softens, "I love you too, Gareth." He rubs her knuckles with his thumb and grins, chuckling slightly. "Wanna go back to my place? I can call work and take the rest of the day off." Laurel nods in agreement and Gareth pays for their meal before they head out to his place. 

"It looks exactly the same as the day I left." Gareth looks around, "oh yeah, I guess I haven't really changed anything, I've been a little busy." She steps ahead of him and he walks up behind her, grabbing her by the waist. He begins trailing little kisses down her neck and shoulder, "god, I've missed this so much," he whispers against her skin. "I've missed your skin and your body, more than you could ever know." The rest of the day was spent in bed, until dinner of course, where Gareth cooked them a beautiful spaghetti dinner, that they ate by his fireplace, the only light being the fire, every once in a while Laurel or Gareth would lean over to give the other a quick kiss and whisper an 'I love you'. Later that night, Gareth was happier than he'd ever been, holding the woman he loves as she slept in his arms, cuddled up on his body.


	7. 1x07 Alternate

"Senator, do you know where your sister is right now?" Luke looks at Gareth, completely confused. "No. Why?" "Because she hasn't been in the office the last 3 hours and someone was trying to break the encryption on her phone." Luke automatically recognizes what is going on. He just signed over for his sister to be tortured by the FBI. He picks up the phone and calls the only agent he can think of that would tell him. After he hangs up, Gareth starts to walk out, swiftly, "Gareth, what are you doing?" He turns back around to face Luke, "I'm going to get Laurel. We can't just let her sit in that office, scared out of her mind, she needs us." Luke walks out of his office, Gareth following him, "Scarlett, find out what room they torture in at the FBI. I don't care how you get the information, just do it." Gareth goes ahead of Luke, mumbling, "I'm going over there." Luke lets him go, knowing he won't be able to do much once he gets there.

"Excuse me, I'm the Chief of Staff to Senator Red Wheatus, he wants the information on the person of interest you're interviewing." The agent looks up at him, extremely confused, "Senator Wheatus didn't give a damn who it was half an hour ago." Gareth is getting more impatient than he already was, "can you just get me the information please? He'd like it before you begin." The agent goes to pick up his phone, "who are you calling?" Gareth starts getting a bit uneasy, "Senator Wheatus." Gareth stops his hand before he can put the phone to his ear, "you don't need to do that, I'll call him myself right now." He dials Luke's number, acting as if it's his boss. Once the idiot of an agent doesn't ask to speak to him and they go through the motions, the agent hands over the information and stats. 

Gareth goes down to the lobby and goes through the file, he sees Laurel's name and something flips in his brain. He rolls the file up in his fist, crinkling it, he walks over to the elevator and goes back up to where Laurel is. "I just spoke to Red on the phone, and he wants me to check out the person of interest myself." The agent, still being the idiot that he is, leads Gareth to the "torture room", which is how Gareth is referring to it in his mind. As soon as he sees Laurel, she is strapped on a weird table thing with machines next to her, he has to hold himself back from grabbing her and running out the door. "Can I speak to her alone?" Everyone leaves and he asks for them to turn off the cameras watching them. 

"Laurel, are you alright?" She nods, still a bit shaken, "I'm scared, Gareth, why am I here?" He rests his hand on her shoulder, "I don't know, but I am going to get you out of here." Her voice gets a bit shaky, "who wanted me here?" He's afraid to tell her who it really was, "my boss, he was feeling threatened by you being in our offices, he knew who's sister you are so he called his friends over here at the FBI." He grabs her hand and looks her in the eyes, "Laurel, I will get you out, your brother is working on it too, it'll be okay." She nods and he leans down where her arm is strapped in and places a kiss on her hand. "I'll be back soon, I'll talk to them, okay?" She nods and he heads back to his office. 

Gareth runs down the stairs to where Luke's office is, "Luke! Did you get them to cancel it?" He looks up at Gareth and shakes his head, "They won't take any of my goddamn calls. Your boss must've done something." Gareth looks at the floor, trying to figure out what else he can do. Luke gets a text to his phone and slams his fists on the desk, "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gareth looks up at him, "They're starting the interrogation in 5 minutes, I can't get in there. I need you to go." Gareth runs out the door and out to his car, going back over to the FBI, it's a 15 minute drive, anything could've happened to her by the time he gets there, he then remembers seeing Onofrio when he was at the FBI building, fuck. They're gonna waterboard her. 

Gareth gets to the floor where she is and begins banging on the door she's at, "open this fucking door, now!" He can't see her, but he can hear her and it's too much for him. The door opens and he can't look at Laurel just yet, "you need to stop this interrogation, Red found another suspect for you. Let her go." The agent looks at Gareth suspiciously, "who's the other suspect?" He pulls out his phone and texts Luke. "Scarlett Pierce, she's Luke Healy's Chief of Staff, she's at the office right now." He runs out and the other agents leave, leaving Gareth to untie Laurel. He runs over to her, she's coughing and sputtering water, "Gareth..." He gently pulls her up and hugs her tightly, "Oh my god, are you okay?" She starts choking again, coughing water all over his suit. "Can you take me home?" He pulls out of the hug and puts his hand on her cheek, "yeah, yeah of course. Do you want to see your brother first?" She nods and he wraps an arm around her waist, helping her off the table. "I've got you, take it easy." He places a kiss on her temple once she's up, he walks her out and they head back to the offices. 

"Laurel, thank god. I thought I'd lost you." Luke says as he hugs her, "you did, there for a while." Luke looks over at Gareth, "thank you so much, Gareth." He shakes Luke's hand and nods his head, "I'm gonna take her home, make sure everything is alright, is that okay?" Luke hugs Laurel again, "of course, I'd do it myself but I feel like I'm gonna have a lot of work to do." Gareth grabs Laurel's waist again, walking her back out to his car. "Do you want me to make you some food or anything when we get to your place?" She shakes her head, leaning against the window, trying not to let him see her trying not to cry. 

They get to her apartment and he walks with her inside, "Laurel, are you alright?" She shakes her head and turns to face him, she falls onto him, letting him hold her, sobbing. "Laurel, hey hey hey...shh." He holds her tight and then moves her over to her bedroom, "Lie down and rest, okay? Do you need anything?" She sits down on the bed as he pulls the covers for her to lie down. "No, I just want to forget everything." Before she can lie down, he places a kiss on her forehead, "let's change your clothes, you're still soaking wet." He goes to her dresser and gets her some new clothes to wear that look comfy. "Do you want to take a shower first?" She shakes her head changing out of her work clothes. "Alright, I'm gonna go use the restroom really quick, I'll be right back." 

When Gareth comes out, Laurel is already dozing off. He goes over to her living room, taking off his suit jacket and rolling up his sleeves. He goes into the kitchen and starts making her some lunch for when she wakes up. He decides to make her something simple since she's probably not all that hungry at this point. Gareth keeps trying to wrap his brain around everything; why Onofrio would do this, why Laurel was the one being questioned, he couldn't understand any of it. After about an hour and a couple cups of coffee later, he hears someone behind him, "Gareth, did you make me food?" He turns around and walks over to her, "hey, yeah I did. How are you feeling?" She takes a seat at the table and he follows her, "my head hurts, my throat hurts, my stomach hurts. But, other than that, I guess I'm alright." He takes her hand and kisses her knuckles, "Laurel, how long before I got there, did they..." She thinks for a moment, not entirely sure, "About 10 minutes, maybe, they would ask me a question, pour the pressurized water over my face for a minute at a time, ask questions, over and over and over again." He rakes his hand over his face and then looks at her again, "Laurel, I thought they were gonna kill you, and when I saw Onofrio...I didn't know what to do." She looks confused, "Onofrio? Anthony wasn't in there, though. He came and talked to me for a few minutes, then left." "Laurel, Onofrio was in there, not in the room with you, but he was outside of it." She rolls her eyes and then he gets up and goes over to where the food he made is. "I made you some pasta and garlic bread. I didn't know if you'd want tomato sauce or alfredo, so I made both." He scoops it out onto the plates and takes them over to her. "Do you want some wine?" She nods her head, "yes, please. Thank you." Gareth stayed with her that night, to make sure she was okay and was safe, considering he doesn't trust Onofrio to not come by her place.


	8. Prediction for Episode 1x11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what I think is going to happen based on the synopsis and pictures we got of Gareth and Laurel.

Gareth has been at work for 13 hours now, he was supposed to meet Laurel at 7 for dinner, but had to cancel because Red asked him to stay. He keeps trying not to think about how exhausted and starving he is while he runs files all throughout the offices. "Gareth, buddy, get in here." Gareth rolls his eyes and heads into Red's office. "Yes, senator?" Red adjusts the vase of cherry blossoms on his desk, "Sit down, here with me. I wanna talk to you about something." Gareth takes a seat opposite Red, "how is Lana?" Gareth immediately gets uncomfortable, "it's Laurel, sir, and why do you ask?" Red shrugs his shoulders and leans into his desk a little more, "I just want to make sure you're doing okay, and I know that she hasn't been in your office recently, you two were seeing each other, weren't you?" Gareth shakes his head, slowly, as Red gets up to lock his office door. "What are you doing, sir?" Gareth looks back when he hears something, he sees little ants coming into the room from the window. "Ummm, Red?" Red just looks at him with a sly smile. "Don't worry, buddy, you're gonna feel so much better than you ever have in a minute." Gareth gets up to get out through his adjoining office door. Red stops him before he can even get to the doorknob. "Red, what's going on?" Red grabs Gareth's shoulder, a bit too tight for Gareth's comfort. Gareth can feel that something is wrong so he swings at Red, missing because he saw it coming. "You don't want to do that, Gareth." Gareth looks down to see the ants coming closer, "Red, let me go." Red turns Gareth around and holds him from behind, covering his mouth and steadying Gareth to not be able to get out of his grasp. All of a sudden there's the sound of the other door to Gareth's office opening, "Gareth?" It's Laurel. They then hear the door close as Laurel leaves. Gareth tries screaming but it's no use. He realizes that he can kick Red, so he kicks him in the knee, Red lets him go and Gareth escapes through his office. He runs out and upstairs where Laurel is. "Laurel! Where's Laurel?" Scarlett points to her office, "she came back down about a minute ago from your office." Gareth runs into Laurel's office and closes the door behind him. "You were right, I'm sorry I didn't believe you. There's definitely something wrong." Laurel walks over to him, "Gareth, what happened? You look like a mess." She presses her hand to his face, "Red, he locked his office door then some ants started coming into the room and he grabbed me and I couldn't move and he was insanely strong, which I wasn't expecting." Laurel stops him from saying anything more, "Are you alright?" He nods, and then looks around the room, "no, actually, I'm gonna go home, this is a lot." Laurel leans in and places a kiss on his lips, "I'll come with you. I'm done here anyways, I'm never here this late." They walk out and head over to his place. 

"I'm gonna change, I need to put on something more comfortable. And I'm starving, so I'll make some dinner afterwards." Laurel grabs his arm before he can go into his room, "I'll make some food, you change and relax, okay?" He exhales deeply and grabs Laurel, wrapping her in a tight hug, "I missed you. Please don't go tonight." She pulls away and goes to the kitchen to make some dinner. "Laurel? What are you making?" He comes up behind her, wrapping her in a hug from behind, "Quesadillas." He chuckles into her hair, "Oh yeah, that's all you know how to make." Laurel turns the stove off and turns around to face Gareth, "How are you feeling?" Gareth backs up and throws his head back, "stupid, a little sore; my arm is a bit bruised where he grabbed me. I just want to know why and how all of this is happening." Laurel walks over to get the plates down from the cabinet, "we are figuring it out, not the why, but we've got the how thing down pretty well." Gareth goes back to sit at the table. "Laurel, do you personally know anyone besides the obvious, that are-" he stops himself, not knowing how to word it. "Two of my oldest friends are, well one of them is, the other one was." He looks up at her, confused, "Abby killed herself because I sent Onofrio to her apartment to get her to a CAT scan, she refused and jumped off of her balcony." Gareth's heart drops into his stomach, "Oh, Laurel. I'm so so sorry." She shakes her head, "I'm okay, really. But also, my dad is infected. but since he's infected, his Parkinson's is gone, which I didn't know he had until I found out he was infected. If the bugs come out of his brain, the Parkinson's comes back, I'd rather him have limited time left as my dad than be a bug though, you know?" Laurel rambles about her dad for a minute as Gareth has his full attention on her. "Laurel, I didn't know, I'm sorry." She walks over to the chair he's sitting in and sits down on his lap, "I didn't even know he was sick, Luke didn't tell me. That's why my dad brought me back to DC." Gareth places a kiss on her shoulder, and then his phone rings. "Sorry, it's my mom." He answers it and Laurel just watches him, "wait, you're coming to stay with me? For how long?" Laurel kisses his cheek and then moves down to his jawline. "Mom, I have work, you can't just stay with me for two weeks. Did something happen?" Gareth rubs Laurel's back as he continues his conversation, "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Love you too. Bye." He pulls Laurel closer, his lips on her collar bone, "my mom is coming for some reason, she sounded really weird on the phone, so I probably won't be able to do dinner tomorrow night." She kisses him, "that's okay, we can go out when your mom leaves." 

The next day, Gareth goes into Red's office, reluctantly considering what happened last night. "Senator, did you want a statement for that budget proposal you told me about the other day?" He looks up to see his mom in the office with Red, "Mom, what are you doing in here?" She walks over and gives him a hug reluctantly, "Red wanted to talk to me about you." Gareth looks at Red and gives him an annoyed look, "what about?" Red and his mom laugh together, "nothing you need to worry about honey, anyways, I'm going to head over to your apartment." She heads out of the office and Gareth rolls his eyes, walking back into his office to call Laurel. "Something's wrong, my mom was in Red's office, acting like a completely different person." They decide to meet up at the Smithsonian to talk about it. 

"She barely touched me when she hugged me, she was laughing with Red, it was awkward and weird and not my mom." Laurel puts her hand on Gareth's thigh, he continues just staring blankly out in front of him, "do you think he..." Laurel turns his head to face her, "I think it's a huge possibility. I'm sorry, Gareth. I don't know what to do." He stares into her eyes, "Laurel, I want you right now." She smiles up at him, "we can go back to my place." They head back to her apartment and as soon as they get there, Gareth is no longer in the mood for anything, "I changed my mind, can we just chill out instead?" Laurel leads him to her bedroom and he takes off his jacket and tied throwing them onto a chair, "do you have any of my tshirts here?" She goes over to the dresser and pulls a gray one out of the top drawer, and then takes a pair of his sweatpants that she stole from his apartment out of the second drawer. "Here you go. Do you want some lunch? I can order pizza." He nods and changes out of his work clothes and into his comfy ones. 

After they eat, Gareth goes into her bedroom and lies down on the bed, one arm behind his head, the other out to his side, in a way of summoning Laurel to him. "Are you tired, Gareth?" He shakes his head, "no, I'm just sick to my stomach over everything." She lies down with him and he turns on his side, she repositions herself so that she's holding him from behind, "I really am sorry, Gareth. I know how hard it is." She places a kiss on his shoulder and then lets herself fall asleep.


	9. Gareth VS Anthony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was going through SpoilerTV.com again and I have a feeling, if those are bruises on Gareth's face in episode 11, there is a chance they're from Onofrio, here's my prediction.

"Anthony, why are you here?" Laurel asks as she Onofrio walks into her office. "I just though I'd come say hi." Laurel looks at him suspiciously, "get out, you're still infected." Anthony walks closer to her desk, "Luke! Luke, get in here!" Luke runs into Laurel's office and sees Anthony, "what's wrong?" He walks over to Laurel's side, "did he do something to you?" She nods and looks at her brother, "he attacked me a while back and he also is the reason I was almost waterboarded." Luke looks back at Onofrio with pure anger, "get out, now." Anthony turns around smiling, "alright, I'll leave." Luke turns back to Laurel, "are you alright?" She nods and grabs her purse, "I have to go meet someone, I'll be back soon." She heads out of her office, relieved that Luke was in his office at the right time. 

"Hey, what'd you want to meet about?" Laurel sits down at a table with Gareth. "I saw something." Laurel just looks at him confused, "what did you see?" He draws in a breath, not really one hundred percent sure what he saw, "I saw a bug, I think, it didn't look like a normal bug." Laurel leans against the table, "where?" Gareth rakes a hand over his face, "Red's office, and he was talking to it, or her. I don't know, it was weird." Laurel just stares at him, for a moment, unable to think of something to say. "She? Did he say she?" Gareth just nods slowly. Laurel pulls out her phone and calls Gustav, "you need to go to Red's office now, Gareth saw a bug, not an ant, a bug, in there and he referred to it as a female." She stays on the phone for a moment more until the conversation is over. "What are you going to do?" Laurel looks around, not entirely sure what she is going to do, "I need you to go back to your office, Red can't suspect anything, he has to think you're oblivious to the bugs." Gareth shakes his head and looks disgusted, "Laurel, I'm not going back to the office, no way." Laurel stands up, "Gareth, you have to. I'm sorry, I'll come by when Gustav gives me the okay. You'll be fine, we know how to get the bugs out if you get infected." She heads back to the offices, as Gareth stands up himself to go back. 

"Agent Onofrio, what are you doing here?" Gareth extends his hand to shake Anthony's. "I just wanted to know how Laurel is doing, I haven't been able to get ahold of her." Gareth looks extremely confused, "I thought you guys were over. I haven't seen the two of you together in a while." Anthony places his hand on Gareth's shoulder, he pulls Gareth around and puts him in a hold from behind, one arm around Gareth's neck, the other holding his arms, "Let me go!" Gareth is able to release from Anthony's hold, Gareth swings at him, but Anthony grabs his fist, smiling, "that's cute, Gareth." Anthony punches Gareth and he falls to the ground, hitting his cheek on the chair next to his desk. As Gareth hits the ground, Laurel and Rochelle walk into his office, "Gareth, are you okay?" Laurel runs over to him, helping him up off the floor, Anthony is gone now and Rochelle kneels to the ground to look at Gareth's face, he shrugs her away, "I'm fine, he just grabbed me and didn't hit me or anything until I tried hitting him. I don't know what he was doing here in the first place." Rochelle looks at Laurel as she stands up, "he was trying to infect you, Gareth." Laurel rubs his back soothingly, "are you sure you're alright? Your face is starting to bruise." Laurel stands up and helps Gareth up, "I'm gonna go home early, I can't be here anymore today." Laurel looks at him, "I'll come with you, I don't want you to be alone." He almost refuses but then realizes, he might actually need someone who knows what's going on. 

"I'm gonna change, so can you grab my laptop from my bag and plug it in over there?" He points over to his desk area, "uhh, yeah sure." She plugs it in and Gareth comes back out a few minutes later wearing a plain gray t-shirt and black sweatpants. "Okay, tell me everything you have on the bugs." He sits down at his desk and Laurel stands behind him, "I'm not the one to talk to, do you want me to call Gustav?" He shakes his head, "no, we can do this ourselves." She sits down next to him, "Gareth, I know you're not in the mood to be around anyone right now, but him and Rochelle know what they're doing." Gareth shuts his laptop, "never mind, I just want to lie down. I'm tired." She looks over at him, confused, he never acts like this. "Gareth, what is going on? I know you're agitated, but you can relax a little." He walks her into his bedroom and sits down on the bed, "Laurel, I am just exhausted, okay? Just lie down with me for a bit. Please." He lies down on the bed over the blankets and she lies down next to him, holding him from behind.


	10. Dinner with Gareth's Parents

Gareth's parents showed up out of nowhere this weekend to visit him in DC, now that her and Gareth were back on speaking terms, he's asked her to go to dinner with them as a friend. "Laurel, come on, why is it such a big deal?" She rolls her eyes at him, "are you serious? First of all, you decided we weren't seeing each other anymore-" he cuts her off, offended, "umm, you ended things with me, first." She continues with her rant, "second of all, they're republicans and I'm a democrat, basically a liberal. Don't you think they'll get a little uncomfortable." He throws his head back, "Laurel, they don't have to know you're a democrat." Laurel takes a sip of her beer, "they'll know, Gareth, you don't have to tell someone I'm a democrat for them to know. When you introduce me as 'Laurel Healy' they'll know. Trust me." It's now Gareth's turn to take a sip of his drink, "then, we don't have to talk about politics. Please, just come, I miss being around you." She crosses her arms, "and whose fault is that?" 

"Mom, dad, this is Laurel. She's a friend of mine that I met through work." He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said they met through work. "Oh really? What is it that you do, Laurel?" She looks at Gareth then at his mom, "I am a constituent caseworker." His dad looks at her, "For Red Wheatus?" She looks back at Gareth, who is looking up at the ceiling. "No, actually, for Senator Luke Healy." He knows what she's doing, she's making his night much more difficult than it should be. "Oh, so you're working for the democratic senator? That's odd." Laurel looks at them, "not really, I'm not republican so..." Gareth's parents both look at him, "she's a democrat?" Laurel extends her hand, "Laurel Healy, sister of Senator Luke Healy." Gareth's mother shakes her hand, reluctantly. "Gareth, may we speak with you in your office, please?" They walk from his intern's desk to his office, leaving Laurel out there, smiling. All Laurel can make out that they're saying is, "you're sleeping with a democrat? Gareth, I thought we raised you better than this." And then Gareth saying, "why does it matter? I like her, I don't care if she's not a Republican, why do you care so much all of a sudden?" That's when it hits Laurel, they're infected. They've only been here for two days, though. Gareth and his parents walk out of his office and Gareth stands next to her, "alright, shall we go?" His parents just stand there, looking at Laurel, "actually Gareth, your father and I are just exhausted, you go on to dinner without us. We will be at our hotel." Laurel looks up at Gareth as he's rolling his eyes. "Alright, fine." Once his parents leave, Gareth looks at Laurel, upset and a little pissed off. "I'm sorry Gareth, I didn't know they'd act like that by me saying I wasn't republican." He shakes his head, "don't worry about it, I didn't know they'd act like that either, they're usually not that bad." Laurel looks down at the floor, then back up at him, "I heard you tell your parents that you liked me, and didn't care that I'm not Republican. Is that true?" He smirks at her, "yeah, but we talked about this, Laurel." She grabs his face and kisses him, when she pulls away, his eyes are still closed, "Gareth, look me in the eye and tell me you didn't miss that," his eyes are still closed, "Gareth, look at me." He opens his eyes and a tear escapes, "Laurel, I missed it more than you know," he says, his voice cracking, he grabs her this time, by the waist and holds her as close as he can, kissing her softly, "let's skip dinner tonight and go back to my place." Laurel says, with lust in her eyes. He nods and kisses her one more time before they head back to her apartment. 

"Gareth, I have to tell you something." He looks down at her, before kissing her temple, "what's up? Is everything okay?" She shakes her head, "Gareth, I think your parents are infected." He chuckles a little, "Laurel, come on, they've only been in DC for two days and haven't been near the offices." She looks up at him, seriously, "Gareth, that doesn't mean anything, they can find people, it's not just a coincidence who's infected, there's always a reason. I think Red infected them." Gareth rolls his eyes and sits up, peeling Laurel off of him, "Laurel, I think that's enough, alright?" She grabs his hand, "Gareth, I know you don't want to believe it, I didn't either with my dad, but this shit is actually happening, I'm sorry." He squeezes her hand, "Laurel, what do we do?" He lies back down with his head on her stomach, "I don't know, Gareth, we are still trying to figure it out." He turns his head and places a kiss on her abdomen, "do you want to help your dad even though without being infected he's terminal?" Laurel's fingers end up tangled in Gareth's hair, "I don't know anymore, I miss my dad, but I am worried about him dying, it's a lot." 

The next morning was the first Saturday that Gareth has had off since the bugs took over Red's brain, so Laurel thought that they should spend it relaxing, Gareth has no idea how to do that, but luckily, Laurel does. Before he wakes up, since she turned his alarms off for him so he could sleep in, she made him coffee and breakfast in bed. Granted, the breakfast was really just a couple pieces of bacon and a couple pieces of toast. Either way, she made it for him. When she took it into her room, she woke up Gareth by placing a kiss on his jaw and then on his cheek and then another one on his lips, which she assumes woke him up since he kissed her back. "Good morning," he says sleepily, "did you make me breakfast? That's so sweet." She sets the plate on the bedside table and crawls back into bed with him, snuggling up to his chest while he picks the plate back up off the table and starts eating it, "thank you for this. I needed it." She squeezes him closer to her, "I thought that everything with your parents and stuff, you could use some sleep and food, keep your energy up." He looks down at her, "what do I need energy for?" She bites her lip and he puts the plate back on the table, "that's really what I could use right now, to be honest." He pulls her onto him and begins kissing her passionately but softly. "Gareth, I have a confession to make." He looks at her, worried, "I told Rochelle and Gustav about your parents so they're following them around today." He laughs a little to himself, "Laurel, I thought you were gonna say something else, you scared the shit out of me. I was gonna suggest that." She smiles and goes back to kissing him.


	11. Luke Finds Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after Gareth and Luke find out about the bugs.

Laurel and Gareth were at Laurel's apartment, Gareth had found out about the bugs a couple of days ago and can't seem to feel safe alone, so they alternate between each other's apartments. "Gareth, can you bring me my robe? I'm freezing." Gareth goes from the kitchen into her bedroom and grabs her robe, throwing it over the couch she's laying on. "Do you want me to turn up the heat?" She shakes her head, "no, just keep baking my cookies, please." He rolls his eyes, "how does this keep the bugs away? Aren't bugs attracted to sticky food?" Laurel picks up her phone to check the time, "Gareth, I don't know how the bugs work, I just know that they'd want you to bake me cookies." He shakes his head, "Laurel, I'm serious, this bug thing is really freaking me out." She gets up off the couch and goes over to where he is in the kitchen, "Gareth, it's okay. I'm just joking." He still looks hurt, so she clasps her hands behind his neck, "Gareth Ritter, you will be fine, trust me. If the bugs get in your brain, I will get them out. I promise. I won't let them radicalize you even more than you already are, you stupid republican." She rests her head on his shoulder and he places a kiss on the top of her head, "thank you, ignorant liberal." She giggles into his chest, "should we head into work?" He shakes his head and she moves across the room, allowing him to walk with her as he wraps his arms around her waist, "Laurel, I don't want to go in. Please just stay here with me today." He puts his head in the crook of her neck, "Gareth, I have to go in, Luke is working on some super big stuff right now. Just go in. If anything happens, run downstairs to my office or call me." He nods and kisses her neck, "the cookies are done so we can go when they cool down." Laurel goes back into her room to change. 

About 5 minutes into Laurel's work day, she gets a call from Gareth, "Laurel, I think Red is trying to infect me." Laurel rolls her eyes, "come down to my office." About a minute later, Gareth is down there with her, "what did he do to make you think he's trying to infect you?" Gareth looks around and then closes her office door, "he kept asking me to come in his office and have a smoothie with him." Laurel wraps him in a hug, "Gareth, he's been doing that for months, it's not that abnormal. Relax." Gareth pulls away and kisses her, "Laurel, can we go back to your apartment after lunch? I can't stay here much longer." She nods, "go get your stuff and you can hangout down here till lunch." After Gareth gets back, they work for about an hour before Luke barges in, "Laurel, what the hell is he doing in here? Scarlett said he's been in here for an hour." Laurel rolls her eyes at her idiotic brother, "we are just working on the budget stuff, bi-partisanship, right?" Gareth stands up, "I can leave, if that would make you more comfortable, Senator." Luke just shakes his head and rolls his eyes, "no, I guess if people see us working together it'll be okay." Luke leaves his sister's office and Gareth sits back down next to Laurel, "Laurel, can we go now?" She nods and grabs her purse, "where do you want to eat lunch?" He shakes his head, "I'll make lunch at your place." As they're leaving, they get a suspicious look from Luke but continue on. 

They've been in Laurel's apartment for about an hour and a half and have finished a delicious lunch of spaghetti and meat sauce made by Gareth, "Laurel, why haven't you told your brother about us?" She looks up at him, "because, he doesn't need to know. He's an asshole so I made the decision to not tell him. Do your parents and sister know about us?" He looks at her carefully, "that's not the same thing, and you know it, they're conservatives from Indiana. They're not entirely accepting. Plus, they're still pissed I broke up with my ex-girlfriend." She stands up and goes to sit on his lap, he wraps his arms around her waist, "what's your ex's name, Gareth?" He exhales, "I don't wanna tell you, you'll make fun of her and you've never even met her." Laurel acts offended, "I would never." He laughs against her neck, "her name is Maryanne." Laurel chuckles a bit, "that's a lovely name, where'd you two meet? On a cow farm?" He starts kissing down her shoulder, "can we go into your bedroom?" he asks, his lips still against her skin. "Absolutely." 

"Laurel?" Luke barges into her apartment, "Laurel! What the hell are you doing?" She looks up at him, pulling the sheets over her as Gareth struggles to get himself together, "Luke, why are you screaming in my house?" He points at Gareth, "why are you sleeping with the other side?" She rolls her eyes and falls back onto the bed, "so, you can sleep with half of DC, but I can't have sex with one person?" Gareth rubs his thumb against her arm, "Luke, I'm sorry, if this is gonna cause problems, I can go." Laurel shoots a look at Gareth, "Luke, you are not ruining this part of my life, I like Gareth and I'm not gonna stop seeing him. If you could please leave." Luke rolls his eyes, mumbling something and walks out of her apartment. 

"Laurel, he hates me." Gareth starts to get out of Laurel's bed, "Gareth, shut up. He doesn't hate you, just your beliefs. Please stay." Gareth sits at the edge of the bed and throws his head into his hands, "this is just so much, Laurel. I don't know what is going on anymore." She moves over toward him pulls his arm to give him the idea to turn around to face her. "Gareth, my brother doesn't hate you, I promise. He's just protective of me." Gareth repositions himself to where his head is in Laurel's lap, as she plays with his hair. "I wanna be with you, but this bug stuff is a lot. I don't know what is happening." Gareth clutches his stomach like he's gonna be sick, "shh, Gareth, just relax." A tear escapes down his cheek, "Laurel, I think I'm gonna be sick." He gets up off her bed and runs to the bathroom, puking up everything he ate for lunch, "Laurel," she hears weakly from the bathroom, "Gareth, oh my god." She stands in the doorway and he looks up at her pitifully. "Laurel, am I going crazy?" She sits down next to him on the floor and rubs his back, placing kisses on his shoulder, "You're not going crazy. The world is, Gareth."


	12. Luke Finds Out Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't like how I ended the chapter before this one so I'm making a second part. I hope you enjoy!

"Are you done puking or are you still scared of the bugs?" Gareth has puked at least 3 times in the last 30 minutes. "I'm done, for now. Will you lay in bed with me?" Laurel helps him up and he goes back into her room, lying down on the bed, "I'm gonna get you some water and then I'll lie down with you, okay?" She fixes the covers over him and he cuddles down into her bed. When she comes back, he's asleep, like basically dead. She lies down next to him, snuggling into his chest, her head in the crook of his neck.

About 3 hours into their sleep, Gareth starts tightening his grip on Laurel. She immediately wakes up, he's still asleep so she assumes he's just dreaming. She starts falling back asleep, but his grip on her is causing her to bruise. "Gareth, wake up." She tries pulling away from him, but he pulls her in tighter. "Gareth, you're hurting me," her voice gets louder, "Gareth, wake up!" His eyes open and he realizes the grip he has on her, loosening his arm, "oh my god, Laurel I'm so sorry, are you okay?" She kisses his neck and collarbone, "I'm fine, are you okay?" He starts instinctively rubbing her back, "I just had a weird dream, that's all." She looks up at him, worried, "Gare, talk to me, what was it about?" He closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath, "the bugs. I know you said I would get used to it, and I know you are used to it. But, I think I might actually be going insane." She snuggles down into him again, "you're not going insane, you're okay, I promise." Gareth rests his head on top of hers, "please don't stop being around, without you, I think I might actually end up losing my mind." She turns around so her back is to him, settling back into him again, "Gareth, I won't leave you by yourself, okay? I'm here." He rests his head on hers and starts kissing her neck and shoulder, gingerly. "Thank you, Laurel. Will you make me some of your quesadillas?" Laurel turns her head to look at him, "I'm not making you quesadillas, Gareth. I'm exhausted, plus, your breath still smells like puke. Please brush your teeth." Gareth gets out of bed and goes into the bathroom. While he's in there, Laurel goes into the kitchen to make some food for them. 

"So, you are gonna make me quesadillas, then?" She turns around to look at Gareth, "I figured you could use a little TLC, you have been through some shit the past few days." He smiles at her and goes right up behind her, running his hand down her arm, "thank you, I just really loved your quesadillas last time." She laughs a little at the last time he had them, "were they as good reheated as they were fresh?" He nods and wraps his arms around her waist, "have I told you how much I love holding you?" Laurel rolls her eyes, "you're so stupid."

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"Are you seriously still seeing Ritter?" Laurel is having lunch with Luke today, since he's pissed she's been sleeping with Gareth. "Please be nice, he's not a bad guy." Luke shivers a bit, "you're just the last person I would ever even imagine to be dating someone from the other side, Laurel." She rolls her eyes, "you know dad is the one that said I'm always rebelling against the family." Luke nods and takes a drink of his wine, "still, do you really like him, or are you only with him to spite us?" She gives Luke 'the look', that told him to shut up really fast. "Luke, I actually really like him. If you could please be nice to him, that would be great." He rolls his eyes, "how long is he gonna be around though? Most of your boyfriends are so temporary that I never meet them." Laurel continues eating, "he's a long term, at least, I think he is. Anyways, he's going through some stuff so I'd appreciate you being nice to him, please. For me, Luke." He agrees to it and they finish lunch before heading back to the office. 

Laurel is in Luke's office going over some stuff for a new constituent, "Laurel, you're phone has been ringing for 20 minutes." Scarlett pops her head into the office, "then why haven't you answered it yet?" Luke asks angrily, considering he was going through something important. "Because I don't work for her." Luke and Laurel both roll their eyes as Scarlett is walking out, "I'll be right back." Laurel heads into her office and her phone starts ringing again so she picks it up. "Hello?" Gareth is on the other end of the line, clearly panicked, "Laurel, I need you to come to my apartment, right now. Why haven't you been answering? I've been calling for twenty minutes!" Laurel calms him down and picks up her bag after hanging up, "Luke, I'll be back in a little bit, something's come up." She calls into her brother's office. 

"Okay, wanna tell me why you called me in the middle of my work day to come over?" Gareth pulls Laurel through the door and wraps her in a hug, "I was so scared, oh my god." Laurel rubs his back to relax him, "Gareth, what happened?" He pulls away, "there were ants everywhere, like all over my bathroom. I don't know how they got there." Laurel walks into his bedroom, then his bathroom, "how'd you get rid of them?" He shrugs, "they just were gone when I came back, I walked outside to get away from them and when I got back, they were gone." Laurel goes back into his bedroom and sits on the bed, "you need to stay at my place tonight, I'll have Gustav come over here and figure out why they left." Gareth packs some stuff and they head over to her place, "are you okay here alone? Or do I need to take the rest of the day off?" He gives her a look of unease. Laurel pulls out her phone to call Luke and tell him what's going on.


	13. The Family Talk

Laurel and Gareth had spent most of the day unpacking their stuff into their new place, "I think the most important thing to unpack is the bedding, Laurel." Gareth wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his head on her shoulder, "Gareth, I think we need to unpack my films and camera equipment first." He stands back upright and walks around to be in front of her, "Laurel, I love you, but I really want to lay in bed with you for the next twelve hours, not have you locked up in your studio office, editing." Laurel leans forward and kisses him, "I know baby, but it has to be done at some point. How about I put the bedding on and you unpack my equipment?" Gareth agrees, not wanting their first night at their new place to be spent with him sleeping on the floor, where the couch is going to be on Tuesday when the furniture store delivers it. "Laurel, I have a dinner tomorrow night at the Capitol building, are you coming too?" Laurel comes back in from the bedroom, "If you want me to, yeah." 

"Laurel, what do you want for dinner?" Gareth yells to Laurel as he scrolls through his laptop while Laurel is still in her office working on her documentary, making notes and to-do lists. When she comes out of the office he looks up from his laptop screen, "I'm glad you've decided to join your boyfriend who you just got this beautiful apartment with." She gives him a smirk and walks over to him, sitting on his lap, "I'm sorry, I don't care what we do for dinner, are you cooking?" Gareth wraps his arms around her waist as he places a kiss on her cheek, "I can cook, yeah. I can make you that chicken stuff you like so much." He removes one arm from around her to continue scrolling on his laptop, "Gareth, what are you working on?" He scrolls back to the top of the site he's on, "I'm trying to find information on this thing for Red, since he's not entirely capable of anything, I have to do literally everything for him." Laurel can hear the stress in his voice, "Gareth, stop working for the night, let's hang out in our new place together. We can cook dinner and then watch a movie." She closes his laptop for him and moves in his lap so she's straddling him, "we don't cook dinner, Laurel, I cook dinner." She shakes her head and leans in to kiss him, "you're so annoying, I'm perfectly capable of cooking." Gareth tightens his grip on her waist, bringing her body closer to his. "Laurel, I love you, you know that right?" She nods her head, slightly confused, "I love you so much to where I'm not gonna lie to you about this, you can't cook." She sighs and shrugs her shoulders, "you're probably right, so what are you making me for dinner tonight?" His hand finds it's way to the hem of her t-shirt, lifting it slightly, "how about we order takeout? And while we wait, we can do something else." Laurel leans down and puts her head on his shoulder, "but I'm expecting a call from Jake about my notes on what he got filmed." Gareth sits there, holding her, not wanting to move, because just having her in his arms is the most comforting feeling on the planet. "Baby, I want you so bad, though." Laurel starts kissing his neck, "Gareth, I've got work to do. Do you want to come watch the film so far?" He nods his head, kissing her temple, "I'd love to." 

They move from the kitchen to the office, Gareth walks to her side of the office and sits in her chair, pulling her onto his lap. She presses play and watches his face, he could watch her films all the time, he loves that this is what she does with her life. When the few scenes she wanted to show him are over, he wraps his arms around her tightly in an awkward hug, "I'm so proud of you, Laurel, this is amazing. I'm really glad you didn't quit working on it." She smiles at him and he almost loses his mind right then and there, making her smile is something he strives to do every second of everyday. "You sir, have just earned yourself a night with me." He smiles up at her, then leans in and kisses her. He picks her up from the chair they're in and carries her into the bedroom, laying her down on the bed as he hovers over her. "God, you're sexy." Laurel says against Gareth's lips, that's plenty to drive him crazy. 

Tangled up in the sheets with Gareth is Laurel's favorite place to be, his toned arms around her, her head in the crook of his neck, it's absolutely cozy. "How many kids do you want?" Her head snaps back, "Zero. Why? How many do you want?" He gives her an offended look, as his head snaps back, "I don't know, the normal amount... like 5 or 6." They both turn their heads from each other, "5 or 6 is a lot, don't you think?" Gareth gets offended, obviously, "zero isn't exactly enough for me, Laurel. I get that you're not the motherly type, or you think you're not the motherly type, but I think you'd be an amazing mom." She turns back to face him, "don't you think it'd be weird for us to have kids considering how different our political views are?" Gareth places a finger under her chin and lifts it up to place a kiss on her lips. "I'm just saying, when we get married, I want to have kids with you. I want little versions of you running around, and I want them to decide for themselves which party they're apart of." Laurel places kisses down his neck and chest, "you haven't formally asked me to marry you, Gare. You drunkenly asked me, remember?" Her mood completely changes, she gets a bit more uncomfortable and seems almost disappointed, "Laurel I'm sorry I said that, I just didn't know if you wanted me to ask you, we hadn't been that serious yet and I just was really caught up in you telling me you were leaving." She shuts him up by kissing him and he pulls her as close to him as he can, "it's just, when you said you were joking I thought that maybe you didn't want that with me. And I realized that I wanted that with you." They sit there for a minute, in a comfortable silence, just holding each other until they eventually doze off to sleep. 

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Gareth went to work the next morning and Laurel went to work on her documentary, making calls and taking notes all day long. When Gareth came home at lunch, he only came to see her to give her a quick kiss before he left to go back to the office again, considering he knew how busy she was and didn't want to interrupt her. At about 5, Laurel decided that was enough work for the day and went to get ready for the dinner at the Capitol building. Gareth comes back to change into his tux and pick her up after he gets off of work. While he's getting ready, Laurel takes it as the perfect opportunity to bring up the marriage thing again. "Gareth, honey, can I ask you something?" He looks up at her while he's buttoning his dress shirt, "umm sure, Laurel, what is it?" The tone of his voice makes it obvious that he's nervous, but she can't figure out why. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to bring up the whole marriage proposal thing yesterday, it just kind of slipped." He fidgets with his bowtie and gets frustrated when he can't tie it for some reason, "hold on, relax, okay? I'll tie it for you." Laurel puts down her bronzer and goes over to help him tie his tie. "Laurel, I shouldn't have even said I was joking, because I want to marry you, I want that life with you. I just don't want it to be rushed." 

Laurel starts to get anxious when they pass the Capitol building and it's already 8 o'clock, Gareth said the dinner started at 7:30. "Gareth, where are we going?" He takes her hand in his and walks her to the bench in the park that they met at so many times before they started seeing each other. "Laurel, if you could take a seat, please." His palms start getting sweaty as she takes a seat, more confused than ever. "Gareth, what's going on, you look really pale. Are you alright?" He kneels down in front of her, taking her hands in each of his, "Laurel, I love you more than I ever could have expected to love a democrat." Laurel giggles at that, which eases Gareth's mind a bit, "I love you too, Gareth. What are you doing?" He picks up one of her hands and kisses the knuckle, it's her left hand. "Laurel, there is no dinner at the Capitol tonight. I wanted to bring you here to ask you a very important question." Laurel is starting to understand what's going on now, "Gareth..." he reaches into his pocket and takes a small box out, "it took a lot of convincing to be able to get this ring from my parents, and I really hope it's enough for you, because this ring means everything to me." A tear escapes Laurel's eye, which makes one escape Gareth's eye. "So, Laurel Healy," he chokes out, "will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?" She is just barely able to utter one sentence without getting too choked up, "you're not joking this time?" He laughs and takes the ring out of it's box, "I wasn't joking the first time. I want to love you everyday for the rest of my life." Laurel nods, tears running down her face, "I don't normally get like this, I'm sorry. Yes, I absolutely will marry you, Gareth. I love you so much." He slides the ring onto her finger and gets up off the ground, picking her up and swinging her around, "oh thank god, I was so scared you'd say no," he whispers into her hair. She looks down at the ring, "if you don't like it, I can buy you one, I just always wanted to have my future wife wear my grandmother's ring." She looks up at him, wiping the single tear off of his face, "I love it, Gareth, it's beautiful. Stop worrying, we're engaged!" He pulls her into him, this time to just hold her, "I'm so glad you said yes. Shall we go to dinner? I invited your brother and mom and my parents to dinner tonight at our favorite place."


	14. Babysitting Baby Grace

Luke and Germaine were out of town this weekend so they asked Laurel to watch Grace for them. However, Grace has never been around Gareth, so he's extremely anxious to have her in the apartment, mostly because Grace is the daughter of an ex-democratic senator, he's really hoping she didn't get her father's views on republicans in her genes. "Gareth, do you have the pack and play and everything set up?" Laurel is baby proofing everything in the apartment, considering their place really isn't "baby friendly". "Yeah, I've just gotta get the high chair and everything together now and we will be all set." Gareth sets his tools on the kitchen table and walks up behind Laurel in the kitchen, wrapping his arms around her waist, "You know, this will be great practice for when we have kids." He kisses her shoulder and she turns to face him, "I've already told you I don't want any kids, Gareth." He pulls away from her, "right, sorry, I forgot." He goes back to get get the high chair pieces that Luke brought by the other day, Laurel follows him into the living room, "Gareth, why are you so upset about this?" He turns to face her, slowly, "I've already told you why I want kids so bad, Laurel. I want to have that with you, more than anything. I thought that since you said yes to getting married, you'd change your mind about that too." Laurel kisses him, when she pulls away, his eyes are still closed and she lays her head on his chest, "I love you, Gareth, I'll think about it. I have to finish baby proofing the kitchen, okay?" He rubs her back and places a kiss on her temple, "alright, thank you Laurel." He goes back to pick up the pieces of the high chair and takes them into the kitchen where Laurel is to get to work on it. 

Luke drops Grace off around noon the next day and Laurel fed her lunch as soon as she got there, Gareth has yet to get closer than 15 feet of the baby, it's now 6:30 and Laurel is starving. "Gareth, can you take her for me? I think she needs a manly touch for a little bit." Gareth comes into the living room, "are you serious? You want me to hold her?" Laurel hold Grace out for him to take her, "hold her while I make some food for myself, please, I'm starving." Gareth takes the baby from Laurel's arms and starts rocking her gently. "Hey sweetheart, you don't hate me like your dad does, do you?" Grace looks up at him and giggles, Laurel smiles at the baby, "that's what I do when I see his face too." She places a kiss on her niece's forehead and goes into the kitchen. "I don't know why you were so worried, Gare, she loves you." Gareth walks into the kitchen with Grace, she's playing with his lips as he pretends to be chewing on her fingers, "well she's just the sweetest little angel in the world, aren't you Grace?" He says in his baby voice, "Laurel, how could you not want some of our own? I mean look at this precious angel." He turns her around so that his head is next to hers, and he sticks his lip out. "Gareth, I'm not having this conversation right now." Grace's lip starts quivering and pretty soon it's followed by her screams and cries. Gareth gently rubs her back and whispers to her, trying to quiet her down a bit, "it's okay Grace. It's alright." Laurel has to admit, Gareth with a baby is really sweet, especially with a baby that is in her own family. She's really glad her family has been so accepting of Gareth, despite being a bunch of democrats. "Grace, you're okay, are you hungry?" Her cries get even louder, "I think she's tired, Laurel, I'll go lay down with her to try to get her to sleep." Gareth goes into their bedroom and sits on the bed with his legs out in front of him, he puts Grace on his chest and starts rubbing her back and rocking back and forth. Pretty soon her cries get quieter and quieter, eventually stopping. Gareth throws his head back on the headboard, exhausted from fighting with Laurel over kids. Speaking of, Laurel walks into the bedroom with two glasses of wine, "I thought you could use this after that." Gareth takes the glass from her and takes a sip before putting it on the bedside table, Laurel does the same and then gets into bed with Gareth, laying down next to him, with her head on his shoulder. He puts and arm around her and snuggles her closer to him. "Gareth, I'm sorry about what I've been saying about the kid stuff." He kisses the top of her head, "no, I'm sorry for pushing you on it. I should respect you about that." She shakes her head, "no, I'm sorry because I do want that with you, but I don't want it because what if we end up like my parents?" His head jerks back to look at her, "Laurel, why would you think that? I wouldn't cheat on you, I promise." Laurel nods her head and looks at her niece, "your Uncle Gareth is such a sap, isn't he Grace?" Grace opens her eyes to look at Laurel and grins, "hey now, I'm sorry that I love you and want to make sure you know that." 

Once Grace falls back asleep, for longer than 5 minutes this time, Gareth lays her down in her crib. "Laurel, can you bring me her blanket? She's shivering." Laurel runs over to the diaper bag and hands Gareth a little pink blanket. He tucks her in it and then leans down and places a kiss on the baby's head. "Okay, now that she's asleep, I'm gonna go shower." Gareth says and heads to the door of the bedroom, "Gareth, do you want me to make you some dinner for when you get out?" Gareth turns to face her, "as long as it's quesadillas." She pecks his lips, "of course." He goes into the bathroom to shower and Laurel heads to the kitchen to cook dinner. When Gareth gets out of the shower he puts on some shorts and then goes to check on Grace. He looks down at her and her cheeks are flushed, "Laurel, did Luke bring a thermometer for her?" he yells into the kitchen, "yeah, it's in the medical bag in the diaper bag." She walks into the room from the kitchen, "why? what's wrong?" He grabs the thermometer and checks her temperature, "her cheeks are flushed, I wanna make sure she isn't running a fever." He pulls the thermometer away once it starts beeping and checks it, "she's running a slight fever, it's not too bad though." Laurel stands next to him and looks down at Grace, "we just need to keep an eye on her." Gareth places a hand on the small of Laurel's back, "I'll give her a bottle, that usually helps." He picks her up, carefully, out of the crib and rests her on his chest, "you know, this is really cute, you shirtless holding a baby." Gareth chuckles and kisses her on the cheek before going to get a bottle out of the fridge. 

"Laurel, her fever is still there, and she's been coughing a bit." Gareth says, carrying Grace into the living room. "Do we have something that gives off steam?" Gareth shakes his head, "we might just have to use the shower." Laurel gets up off the couch and goes into the bathroom to turn on the shower, all the way hot. "Take off her pajamas, Gareth." Gareth sits on the floor of the bathroom, resting Grace on his lap, he undoes all the buttons and gently takes off her pajamas, Grace opens her eyes and immediately starts crying, "hey, shhh, it's okay. It's alright, sweetheart." Once her pajamas are off, he picks her back up, laying her against his chest so that her head is on his shoulder, he rubs her back to try and decongest her, which makes her cry harder. Laurel sits down next to him and puts her head on his other shoulder, "she's not gonna stop crying till she feels better, Gareth." He places little kisses on the baby's head, "I know, she just needs to let it out, poor thing." Laurel gets up off the floor and finds some vapor rub in her medicine cabinet, "here, put this on her back, it used to help me and Luke when we were little." Gareth scoops a little bit out and rubs it on her back, "there we go, you're okay baby." Grace's sobs quiet down and Gareth rocks back and forth until they stop. He looks down at the little girl in his arms, her eyes are still open, but swollen from crying and she looks absolutely pitiful. "Laurel, do you think she just needs to lie down again?" Laurel nods at him and they go into the bedroom. Laurel takes Grace from Gareth and Gareth lies down, pulling the blankets where they're comfortable. Laurel lies Grace down on Gareth's chest again and Grace automatically calms down. "You'll feel better soon, Grace. You just need some sleep, don't you?" Gareth says in his baby voice again. Laurel gets up to get Grace's blanket, she hands it to Gareth and he rests it on top of Grace, as they doze off to sleep. 

The next morning, the three wake up to Laurel's phone ringing. She picks it up off the table and Grace starts whimpering before Gareth can calm her down again. "Luke, we are fine. She had a little bit of a fever and a cough late last night, but Gareth fixed it." She throws herself back on the bed, "Luke, it's okay, I'll call you if I need you, alright?" Laurel hangs up and looks at Gareth, "he's a wreck, how's she doing?" Gareth looks down at Grace, he puts his hand on her forehead, "she looks fine, doesn't feel like she's running a fever." Laurel gets out of bed, "well we should take her to do something today, then. Instead of being stuck inside." Gareth gets out of bed too, holding the baby. "I'll get her changed and fed and you go take a shower." Laurel leans over and places a lingering kiss on Gareth's lips, "okay, if you need me, let me know." Gareth nods and takes Grace over to the table at the end of the bed. "Let's get you changed, okay?" He changes her diaper then pulls some clothes out of her bag, putting them on her. "Now, let's see what food we've got for breakfast." Gareth takes her into the kitchen and puts her in the high chair while he digs through the baby food Luke brought. "Let's try these peaches, your daddy said that's your favorite." Grace bangs her hands on the tray of the chair and laughs, "I'll bet that means it is your favorite, huh?" He grabs a chair and sets it in front of Grace, "alright, let's show Laurel that we can have a baby once we're married, okay? You have to be extra good today, okay?" Grace giggles at him after he scoops the food in her mouth, "you're such a doll, oh my goodness." Laurel walks into the kitchen, her hair is still wet and she's only wearing a robe. "Is she eating okay?" Gareth nods and scoops more food in her mouth, "she's being really great this morning, aren't you Grace?" Grace makes a loud squealing noise, "see? She loves me." Laurel smiles at him and goes to pack Grace's diaper bag, "hey Gareth, what's the weather supposed to be like today?" He pulls out his phone to check the app, "it says the high is 55, Laurel, so grab her jacket." Laurel changes herself and takes the bag into the front hall, "go get dressed, Gareth, so we can go." He gets up and hands the food to Laurel so she can finish feeding Grace. 

"Where are we going?" Gareth asks Laurel as he straps Grace into her stroller, "I thought we'd just take a walk." Gareth stands back up and starts pushing the stroller, Laurel wraps her fingers in his and they start down the block. "Gareth, I've thought about the kid stuff." He looks at her, excitedly, "and?" Laurel smiles at him, "after watching you with Grace last night, I realized, maybe kids wouldn't be so bad. But I'm not gonna try for them, if it happens, I'll be okay with it. Alright?" Gareth stops walking and turns to her, "I'll take it, Laurel, thank you." He pulls her in by the waist and kisses her, "I love you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will post a part 2 of this, I don't know when, but I will.


	15. Babysitting Baby Grace Part 2

Later that night, after spending a lot of time at the park; where Gareth slid down the slide more times than he would have normally been comfortable with, and swinging on the swings for an hour because Grace loved it, they ate dinner and sat down to watch a movie to get Grace to sleep. Actually, Grace fell asleep fine after being up and doing so much all day, but Gareth wanted this time with Laurel, her favorite movie and just not needing to talk, just enjoying each other. "Laurel, I talked to my mom the other day about the wedding stuff." Laurel turned to face Gareth just as the movie was ending, "I don't want anything big, Gareth, what did you talk about?" He wrapped his arm around her waist and shifted Grace on his chest, "she just wanted to know if she could go dress shopping with you. It would really mean a lot to her." Laurel looks at him, smiling, "Gareth, I'd love it if your mom went dress shopping with me, plus, my mom hasn't been around yours enough." Gareth places a kiss on her cheek which causes Grace to stir on his chest. She starts whimpering a bit and then turns into cries. "Oh my god, do you wanna take her, or should I?" Gareth says, looking at Laurel. "You can, I'm gonna go make some tea and go to bed, you can deal with her." 

"There we go, you're okay sweetheart, I've got you." Gareth changes Grace and then notices she's a little warm again, "Laurel, I think her fever is back." Gareth decides against putting her pajamas back on her, considering she's probably too hot. "Do you want me to call Luke or can you handle it?" Gareth picks Grace back up, rubbing her back, "call him, but I can handle it." He goes into the bathroom to get a wet washcloth for the baby, "Laurel, can you get me a warm bottle ready?" Laurel goes into the kitchen for a few moments and returns with a bottle, "here, why don't you lie down with her? She usually likes that." He takes Grace into the bedroom and lies down with her to feed her. "Laurel, you know that I would never ever cheat on you, right?" She nods, laying her head down on his shoulder, playing with Grace's hair, "you trust me, don't you?" She nods, continuing not to say anything, "I talked to your brother about your dad and stuff the other day, and he's not doing great. I want to take you to see him tomorrow after Luke picks up Grace." Laurel sits up and looks at him, "Gareth, I can't, I don't want to see him like that." He places a kiss on her temple and props up Grace's bottle so he doesn't have to hold it so he can rub Laurel's shoulders, "I'll be there with you, I don't want you to regret not seeing him in the hospital more before he..." Grace starts whimpering again so Gareth stands up to rock her, "please at least think about it, Laurel, I think you need this more than you know." 

The next morning, Gareth wakes up before Laurel and feeds and changes Grace. He sets Grace in her highchair and gives her some toys to play with. "Okay, Grace. What do you think Auntie Laurel wants for breakfast today?" He starts running around the kitchen making Laurel the perfect breakfast in bed, complete with her latte that he just learned how to make at home recently. He picks up Grace and then the tray off the counter and takes it into their bedroom, "Laurel, honey, wake up." He sets Grace down on Laurel's stomach and puts the tray on her bedside table. "Grace, did you and Uncle Gareth make breakfast?" Grace giggles and snuggles into Laurel's chest, "I thought you could use a relaxing breakfast in bed." Laurel grabs Gareth's shirt and pulls him down to kiss him. "Thank you, Gare." 

After breakfast, Gareth gets all of Grace's belongings together for Luke to come by and get everything. "Luke is here!" Laurel yells into the bedroom, where Gareth is taking apart the crib. "I'm almost done!" After a minute or so, Luke comes in and helps him put it in the box. "Do you need help taking stuff to the car?" Luke nods and he and Gareth carry everything downstairs. "Alright, I'll see you later Grace, we'll come see you soon!" Laurel hands her off to Gareth, "bye sweetheart, I had fun with you this weekend." He kisses her on the forehead and hands her to Luke, "thanks guys, I'll talk to you all later." Luke leaves and Gareth pulls Laurel in for a hug, "how about we go see your dad now?" Laurel nods and kisses Gareth before heading to change in the bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was kind of a short part 2, but oh well. The next think I post will be a ficlet inspired by something I saw on tumblr the other day.


	16. Chapter 16

Gareth and Laurel usually were pretty good about taking turns on which movie to watch on their designated movie nights, usually Saturdays unless there was a party, then it was Thursdays. However, tonight Gareth really wasn't in the mood for a horror film, even though he knows it's Laurel's night to choose a movie. "Gareth, I'm not watching some stupid movie tonight, I really am not in the mood for gushy, feel good shit right now." Gareth grabbed Laurel's arm as she was about to turn away from him, "Laurel, please. We watched The Conjuring two weeks ago, I don't wanna watch the second one now. They're all the same." Laurel rolls her eyes and goes over to their collection of movies, "Gareth why do you want to watch a romantic movie? Those are all the same, too." He threw himself back onto the couch and Laurel cuddled up next to him, "we don't have to watch a movie tonight, Laurel." She looks up at him, clearly agitated, "not tonight, Gareth, I don't feel good and I had a really shitty day and just want to watch a movie with my husband." He wraps his arm around her shoulders and puts the other hand to her forehead, "you don't feel warm, what's wrong?" Laurel shrugs and stands up to grab the remote, "I don't know, I just want to watch a movie." They go through all of their movies and decide on Charade, it's not a horror, but it is a thriller and a romance, so it worked. 

Gareth shifted on the couch so that he was lying down stretched out, "Laurel, come lay with me instead of sitting on the floor." Laurel just shakes her head, staring straight off at the TV, "what's wrong Lo?" He hardly used a nickname for Laurel unless he thought she was really upset or he just really wanted to use it. "I just had a bad day, that's all." He sits up and repositions himself to sit with his legs on either side of Laurel, he grabs her shoulders and starts massaging them, she leans her head back and Gareth leans down to place a kiss on her lips. She stands up and Gareth moves as Laurel sits in between his legs, with his arms around her waist. "Laurel, why was your day so bad?" She shrugs and leans her head back against his shoulder, "I'm just so tired of this documentary, I didn't even want to make it, I'm only doing it for Jake. I'd honestly rather come back to Capitol Hill with you." He kisses her on the cheek and moves his arms so his hands are resting on her hips, "Laurel, just take a break from working for a while, you don't need to be stressed over something you don't love." She looks up at him, "I'm not gonna just take a break from working, Gareth, I'm not letting you take care of me. I'm not a housewife." He opens his mouth to retaliate but decides not to. "No, what were you gonna say, what's your argument?" He sighs and looks down at her, "I'm running for Senate, Laurel. I didn't want to tell you until I was absolutely sure this is what I want." Laurel stands up from the couch and throws her hands over her face, "I can't believe you didn't ask me about this." He stands up and goes over to her, grabbing her hand, "Laurel, I was gonna ask you about it, but I was told not to say anything about it." She takes her hand out of Gareth's, "I'm your wife, Gareth! Not some random hill staffer, did you think I wouldn't approve?" He throws his arms up, "well this is a pretty good indication of whether or not you approve, I think." She storms off into their bedroom and Gareth follows, "Laurel, I'm sorry, I should've asked you. Why are you so upset?" She pulls him down on the bed with her, "Gareth, I have to tell you something." Gareth looks at her, completely confused. Five seconds ago she was screaming at him, and now she's fine. "I'm pregnant Gareth. I found out last week." He's at a loss for words, absolutely speechless. He grabs her waist and looks down at her stomach, "you are?" She nods, "that's why I don't want you to run for Senate. I don't want to be your stay at home wife, who follows behind you with a kid on the way." He kneels down in front of her, placing his hand on her stomach, "Laurel, you are so much more than that, you're a successful, amazing, woman who doubts herself way more than she should. I love you so much, and if you don't want me to run, I'll wait to do it, okay?" Laurel shakes her head and leans down to kiss him, "I want you to run, I just don't want our kid to repeat the childhood I had." He stands up and she does the same, he wraps an arm around her waist and grabs her hand with the other, her other hand ends up on his shoulder, "you know that during the campaign and if I win, we will have to go to all the parties and actually dance, right?" Laurel throws her head onto his shoulder, "there's no music playing, Gareth." Gareth, the dork that he is, starts humming their song. 

Later that night, Gareth wakes up in the middle of the night by a loud crash noise. He looks over to get Laurel, but she isn't there. "Laurel? Is everything okay?" He walks out of their bedroom and into the kitchen, he sees Laurel standing at the fridge with a spoon in her hand and a carton of ice cream on the floor. "Laurel, really?" She closes the freezer and Gareth picks up the carton off the floor. "I'll get the mop, hold on." He runs into the hall closet and grabs the mop and starts cleaning up the kitchen floor. "Why are you up this late?" She points to the laptop on the island, that he hadn't seen a minute ago, "I was thinking about this one shot that I had forgotten to fix and then I really wanted some ice cream, which by the way, all we have is your gross pistachio ice cream, we need cookie dough." Gareth goes over to Laurel, clearly exhausted since it's 3 in the morning, "Laurel, it's too late for this, come back to bed, okay?" She looks at him with her puppy eyes, which she knows he can't resist. "Fine, I'll go get you cookie dough ice cream." She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him, "thank you, Gare, I love you." He rolls his eyes and goes to put his shoes on and grab his keys. When he gets to the store, he grabs the ice cream and more of his own that she'd dropped on the floor, probably on purpose to wake him up so he'd get more of her ice cream. When he gets back home, Laurel is still on her laptop. "Laurel, I got your ice cream, now get off your computer, it's too late to work on that right now." Laurel closes her laptop and takes the ice cream from Gareth, "thank you." she walks past him and places a kiss on his cheek. He follows her into their room, where she's already sitting eating her ice cream. "Laurel, I am exhausted, please lie down and go to sleep with me." He takes the ice cream from her and puts it back in the freezer and goes back into their room to lie down. 

The next morning after his staff meeting, Gareth lazily sets his stuff down on his desk and sits down, "you've got a meeting with a Mrs. Foster today, Gareth." He nods and lays his head down on his desk, "can you get my wife on the phone?" A moment later, Laurel calls for him, "hey Lo, I forgot my lunch in the fridge, can you bring it to me around noon?" After Laurel agrees to bring his lunch, Red comes into his office, "Gareth, why are you laying down? Are you sick?" He sits up, "no, Senator, I just didn't get much sleep last night." Red walks around the front of Gareth's desk, "who's Mrs. Foster?" He shakes his head, "just someone helping me out with something." He couldn't tell Red about his campaign just yet, he was gonna be taking his boss's job, if you think about it. Red just walked back into his office as Gareth got his stuff for his meeting together. 

"So I talked to the woman who is gonna be my manager today." Gareth says as Laurel sets his lunch down on his desk. "Oh? What about?" She sits down in the chair across from his desk, "you, and other things. She said you don't have to be at every event, unless you want to." Laurel nods, looking a little uneasy. "You okay?" She shakes her head and grabs the trashcan by his door, puking up her breakfast and lunch. "Oh, Laurel, let me go get you some water." He goes into the main office and grabs a water bottle from the mini fridge. "Here you go, is that the first time today that you've puked?" He asks moving her hair out of her face, "no, I've been puking all morning." He rubs her shoulders, "why didn't you tell me? I would've come home to take care of you." He takes the trashcan she just puked in and asked the intern to get it cleaned out. "Let's go back home, Laurel, I don't have anymore meetings today." He grabs his bag and helps her up and they head back home.


	17. Debate Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I watch the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it sounds exactly like some things the BrainDead writers have written, so I came up with the idea of Laurel and Gareth watching the debate together.

"Gareth, this is just gonna start a billion fights, we can't watch this together." Gareth takes the remote from Laurel, "Laurel, yes we can, we can be adults about this, trust me." She takes a seat on the couch next to him, basically in his lap. "We should probably drink." Gareth stops Laurel before she can get up again, "no, we are doing this sober. Now shh, it's starting." A few minutes go by and Laurel is already biting her tongue to not speak up about Trump's idiocy.  
"Why is Hillary laughing? She's insane, oh my god."  
"Because every single thing coming out of Trump's mouth is a joke."  
"So is everything coming out of Hillary's mouth. She can't release her emails, why the hell not? What is she hiding?"  
"Trump doesn't pay his taxes, Gareth, really?" He throws his head back and lets out an exasperated sigh, "Laurel, all I'm saying is Hillary is unfit to run for presidency, she's a criminal." Laurel looks at Gareth until he looks back at her, "I don't disagree, honey, but Trump isn't exactly perfectly suited to run either." He takes Laurel's hand in his and looks her in the eye, "Honey, I don't completely disagree either, however, you're wrong." 

"Do you seriously believe what he just said?" Laurel looks up at Gareth, who is now standing on the other side of the room, pacing, like a politician. "I do believe that gun violence needs to be stopped, Laurel." She throws her hands up, "Gareth, that wasn't even an answer to the question he was asked!" He looks back at Laurel, "you're right, but he's right about what we need to do to fix these issues." Gareth walks over to the couch and hovers over her with one hand on either side of her, “Laurel, I love you, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.” He leans down to kiss her on the cheek and she moves out of the way. “Are you serious? You can't just insult me, then try to kiss me, Gareth.” He plops down on the couch next to her and turns to face her, “Well, I wouldn’t be insulting you if you’d just listen to me.”   
“Okay, Gareth, I think that’s enough of the debate, you can watch it tomorrow online.”   
“Laurel, come on.” She takes the remote and turns off the tv, then faces Gareth, “You can sleep on the couch tonight, okay?” She leans over and kisses him on the cheek before whispering, “I really hope Trump is worth it,” and then she leans down and places little kisses on his neck, which she knows drives him crazy. She gets up and starts walking toward the bedroom, Gareth slouches himself over the back of the couch, “Laurel, please, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it.” She turns back around, “No, no, no, you had your chance.” 

Laurel woke up around midnight to her phone ringing, “Hello?” she answered groggily. She heard Luke’s voice on the other end,   
“What did you do to Gareth? He just texted me and asked for advice on how to get you to forgive him.”  
“Are you serious?”  
“What did you do?”   
“We were watching the debate-”  
“Oh dear god, do you guys even realize you’re on opposite sides of the aisle?”  
“Anyways, we were watching the debate and he insulted me by saying I had no idea what I was talking about, so I turned the tv off and teased him a little, then went to bed.”   
“I’m so glad you’re my sister, did you call him out on his bullshit about Trump?”   
“Not really, but is he really upset?”   
“He’s still awake, he’s been texting me for an hour.”   
“Aww, I’m so glad my brother is bonding with my boyfriend.”  
“He’s actually not a bad guy, Laurel, don’t screw this up.”   
“Whatever, I’ll go talk to him. Love you.”  
“Love you too, bye.” Laurel gets out of bed and throws on her robe before opening the bedroom door, Gareth immediately turns around, “Hey, Laurel, I thought you went to sleep.” She walks over to the couch and sits down next to him, “I was asleep, until my brother called…” Gareth throws his head back and rakes a hand over his face, “I’m sorry, I just don’t like when you’re mad at me, and I am sorry for being a jerk during the debate.” She nuzzles her head into the crook of his neck, “It’s okay, I still love you even though you support Trump.” He wraps his arms around her frame and places a kiss on her head, “I still love you even though you support Hillary.” She gets up and helps him off the couch, “I’m genuinely curious though, do you want Trump to be our president?” He shakes his head and goes in to kiss her, she pulls away after a moment,   
“Wait, you don’t?”   
“No, of course not, I might be a conservative, but I’m not that bad, don’t tell anyone at work that I said that, though.” Laurel leans back in and kisses him again, “and just so you know, I’m not the biggest Hillary fan, either.” Gareth picks her up by the waist and she wraps her legs around him, he spins her around and carries her into their room.

“Do you forgive me now?” Gareth asks pulling Laurel into his side, “You are forgiven.” She wraps an arm around him and rests her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes to finally get some real sleep, "Laurel, what would you think of me, running for Senate?" She opens her eyes to look up at him, "I think you'd make a great senator, Gareth. When would you be running?" He smiles at her, "The campaign would start beginning of January." She nods, approvingly, "I'd love to stand with you as you run, Gareth, but only if you're not an asshole about things." He grabs her face and kisses her, "Of course not, I have you to keep me level-headed, don't I?"


	18. Gareth Ritter: Single Dad for A Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow was Gareth's day off from the campaign and he was so excited to finally be able to spend a whole day with Elaine and Laurel, however, Laurel just dropped a huge bomb on him.
> 
> *Takes place about 5 months after Elaine was born*

Tomorrow was Gareth's day off from the campaign and he was so excited to finally be able to spend a whole day with Elaine and Laurel, however, Laurel just dropped a huge bomb on him. 

"What do you mean you have to go to LA for a couple days?"  
"Jake needs me to help him out with editing on a new project, I'll only be gone for two days, I promise." Laurel picks up a fussy Elaine out of her crib, rocking her gently, "Gareth, don't be mad at me, I know you wanted to spend time as a family tomorrow, but I have to help him out." Gareth turns around and heads to the kitchen. "I'm not mad, I'm just- do you have to leave tonight? Why can't you go next week?" Laurel hands him the baby and starts fixing a bottle, "Because the project due date is the end of this week. Also, the nanny can't come on Thursday, you'll have to take Elaine to the office with you until I get back." Gareth rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh, "Gareth, I'm sorry, I don't know what else I can say." 

Gareth wakes up the next morning at five o'clock to Elaine screaming her head off. "It's my day off, come on." Gareth thinks to himself as he gets out of his unfortunately empty bed, "Elaine, why are you waking me up so early? Huh?" He pulls her out of her crib and onto his chest, she nuzzles into the crook of his neck, still screaming. "Hey, hey, hey. What are you so upset about?" He makes her bottle and tries feeding her, which doesn't work. He tries swaddling her, doesn't work. He finally tries just laying down on the couch with her on his chest, which works for about five minutes. "Do you miss mommy, Elaine?" She screams louder this time, "I know, I miss her too." He opens up his laptop that's sitting on the coffee table and FaceTimes Laurel, it's probably 2 in the morning for her, but he needs her right now. "Gareth, why are you calling me at 2:30 in the morning?" She's wide awake and sitting in a studio, he can see Jake next to her and assumes they've been up all night working. "El hasn't stopped screaming since 5, I figured hearing you would help, which it looks like it did because she stopped." Laurel smiles at him, "Let me see her." He moves the laptop screen so Elaine is visible, "Oh, hi baby, mommy misses you bunches." Elaine settles into Gareth a little easier now and he laughs at that, "I knew that's what she needed, I miss you, Lo." Laurel rolls her eyes at him, smiling, "I've been gone for like 8 hours." He chuckles, "I still miss you. I'm gonna try and go back to sleep before she wakes up again, I'll talk to you later, I love you." Laurel smiles back at him, "I love you too." 

Gareth was able to get back to bed without waking up Elaine, instead of putting her back in the crib, he figured he'd just put her in their bed with him. He got some pillows to make sure she wouldn't fall off the other side, and laid down next to her, in a protective way, finally getting some sleep. 

A couple hours later, he hears Elaine whimpering next to him. "Hey, come here, El." He picks her up and takes her to the kitchen, "Are you hungry?" He grabs the bottle from earlier, not really caring as long as she gets something in her body, and puts it up to her mouth. He has never seen a baby drink so much, so fast. "Oh my goodness, you really were hungry, weren't you?" He says in his baby voice after putting the bottle in the sink. "You got a couple of burps in you?" He repositions her so her head is on his shoulder and he starts rubbing her back. 

After changing Elaine and putting her down for a nap, Gareth goes back into the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He eats some food and then starts doing the dishes, considering the baby bottles and things are adding up rather quickly. After, he goes into the living room and turns on the TV to get caught up on Game of Thrones. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming." After an episode of Game of Thrones, Elaine decides that her nap time is over. "Wanna go play in the living room?" He picks her up and bounces her a little to wake her up more. "Mommy bought you a new toy to play with before she left." He sets her in the pack and play in the living room before getting out the new bouncy seat that Laurel bought and setting it up. "Here we go." He puts Elaine in the seat and she automatically loves it as soon as he turns it on. He sits down in front of her on the floor and starts playing with her feet, tickling her, and making her laugh. "You are the best and cutest baby in the world."

"I think it's time for lunch, don't you?" Elaine makes an excited noise as Gareth picks her up off the floor, in the midst of all her toys. He puts her in her highchair and makes himself a sandwich before getting her food out. Right before he can take a bite of his sandwich, his phone rings. He grabs it from the counter and sees that it's Laurel, so he puts it on speaker. "Hi babe, how's LA?" He can almost feel her exhaustion through the phone, "It's fine, how's El?" He looks over at Elaine, as she smiles up at him, "She's good, I'm gonna feed her after I eat." He takes a bite of his sandwich and continues talking to Laurel for a few more minutes before Elaine can get fussy again.  
"Sweetheart, I have to go, Elaine is getting hungry."  
"Alright, I love you, tell El I love her too."  
"Alright, love you, Lo." 

"Let's go for a walk, huh? Maybe it'll help you sleep a little faster." He grabs the stroller out of the hall closet and puts Elaine's coat on, putting her in the stroller. Elaine has been blabbing for the past 30 minutes, while Gareth has been trying to get her to sleep. He leans over the handles of the stroller and watches his daughter talk absolute nonsense about the world around her. All of a sudden, a guy in a hood walks closer to them, Gareth gets a little uncomfortable considering it was getting dark outside and a guy in a hoodie with his head down and hands in his pockets, screamed "enemy" in Gareth's mind. He brushed it off until the guy started slowing down the closer he got to Gareth. "You're Gareth Ritter?" Gareth put on his politician stature and stood a bit straighter, "Yes, I am. Can I help you?" He takes his hands out of his pocket, revealing a knife. His dad instincts kick in and he pushes the stroller slowly out of the way of the man. The guy starts moving his hand with the knife up and Gareth swings at him, the guys grazes Gareth's hip as he takes the punch, then comes back and tries to attack Gareth again, only he punches him again and this time grazes the side of Gareth's abdomen. "Shit!" Gareth yells as he notices someone dialing a number on their phone, "Help! Please help me!" He's not screaming for himself so much as for his daughter. The hooded man runs away after the person on the phone starts walking over. "Are you alright, sir?" Gareth looks down at his hip and abdomen and sucks in a breath, "I'll be fine, can you call 911 for me, please? I have my daughter with me, and I don't know if I can make it home with her, let alone the hospital." The person dials 911 and Gareth goes to the stroller to soothe Elaine, who has been crying since he first swung at the man. 

Once they're at the hospital, Gareth doesn't let El out of his sight, "Would you like us to call anyone for you Mr. Ritter?" He sits up in the hospital bed, "No, I'll call them, I don't want anyone to worry too much." He grabs his phone once the nurse leaves and slowly leans over to grab Elaine from her stroller, where she's been sleeping the last few minutes. He props her on his chest and calls Laurel. "Hey, sweetheart. How's Jake's project going?" He winces a bit as a pain goes through his hip, "You alright, Gare? What's wrong?" He lets out a breath, "I was attacked. I took Elaine on a walk to try and get her to sleep and a guy came up to me, asked if I was Gareth Ritter, pulled out a knife and I hit him a couple times, but the knife grazed my hip and side. I'm sorry, Laurel, I should've been more careful with El, but we are both okay, I promise, she's been asleep since the police came." There's a silence for a minute on Laurel's side,  
"Thank god you're okay, Gareth, are you in any pain? I'm booking a flight home now, I'll be there later tonight."  
"I'm okay, Laurel, really. I'm leaving within the hour, whenever your brother can come get me since he's already got a carseat in his car. Don't worry, stay in LA."  
"Gareth, I'm coming home, you need me, I'll be home soon, I love you." Before he can respond, she hangs up. 

"Thanks for coming to get me, Luke. No way could I drive right now."  
"Sure, I can't believe some guy tried to stab you." Gareth grabs his side, "Yeah, it's not the first time, but it definitely hurts more than the last time, I'm just glad El is okay." Luke pulls up to the curb outside of Gareth and Laurel's apartment, "Do you want my help with Elaine? You probably shouldn't carry her and the stroller with your stitches." Gareth nods, and gets out of the car. When they get inside, Gareth puts the stroller away and Luke takes the now sleeping baby to her crib, "Gareth, if you need me to take her to my place for the night, I wouldn't mind, you need rest. And Laurel would kill me if I let you hurt yourself even more." Gareth goes into the bedroom where Luke is, "Laurel will be home in a couple hours, I should be fine, thanks though." Luke pats him on the back and heads out. 

At about midnight, Gareth wakes up to the door opening, "Laurel?" She drops her bags and runs to the side of the bed Gareth is on, "Oh my god, are you alright?" She pulls the covers off of him a bit to see where he was hurt, "I'm fine, Laurel, really. I'm just a little sore." She leans down and kisses him, not knowing what to say. "How's Elaine? Has she been sleeping long?" He sits up and walks her over to the crib, "She's woke up after I called you earlier, and fell back asleep when Luke came and picked us up, she's been asleep since." Laurel rests her head on Gareth's shoulder, looking down at her daughter, "I'm glad she's good at sleeping, cause I'm going to bed. Are you sure you are okay?" He turns around, resting his hands on her hips, "I'm fine, let's go to bed, I have to go to the office tomorrow." She lazily kisses him before pulling him back to their bed to go to sleep.


	19. Thanksgiving Plans Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's really short but there will be at least 3 parts.

Laurel and Gareth had gone to the bar for a little bit, in hopes of destressing from the current presidential election. Gareth paid for their drinks and stumbled back to the table Laurel was sitting at, “Gareth, let’s make a bet.” He takes a seat across from her and looks up, “What kind of bet?” She pulls out her phone and checks the most recent election poll, “If Hillary wins the election, we do Thanksgiving with my family. If Trump wins, God forbid, we go to Indiana for Thanksgiving. Either way, we will do Christmas in Indiana.” He laughs quietly at her hatred for Trump and reaches across the table to take her hand, “Alright, sounds like a pretty good bet to me. Also, did you hear what Trump said last week?” That was their code to go somewhere a little more private… Laurel grabs Gareth’s hand and they run out of the bar, giggling like children. 

Once Laurel opens their apartment door, Gareth grabs her by the waist and crashes his lips into hers, he moves them inside and slams the door closed with his foot on the way in. He pushes her up against a wall, moving from her lips to her jaw and down her neck, as her hands run through his dark golden, perfectly messy hair. His hands find their way under her shirt, pulling it up over her head. “Gareth, bedroom,” Laurel manages to say in between breaths. He picks her up by the waist and carries her over to their bed, laying her down gently, he hovers over her breathing heavily as she removes his shirt and undoes his belt. He stands up, pulling his jeans off, very clumsily, and jumps onto the bed, hovering over her again. She removes her skirt and Gareth kisses down her chest and abdomen. 

Laurel held onto Gareth’s back as he began to get sloppier with his thrusts, “Gareth,” she moaned as they both reached their highs, he fell over next to Laurel, both of them completely out of breath. “I love you, Laurel.” Gareth says, pulling her over to his side, she nuzzles into his chest and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, “I love you too.” 

“You know, I think that even if Hillary wins, we should still go to Indiana for Thanksgiving.” Gareth takes a bite of his omelet and picks up his coffee, “Gareth, we made a deal. You can’t go back now.” Laurel sits down next to him at their dining room table, picking up her phone, “Laurel, come on, do you really want to spend an entire week with your family? Plus, they hate me.” She picks up her legs, resting them on Gareth’s lap, “Gareth, stop it, they don’t hate you. You get along with Luke just fine, don’t you?” He looks down at his food and then back up at her, “Laurel, I just, I hate that your family doesn’t want me around, I really have tried.” She gets up from her seat and goes over to sit on Gareth’s lap, “I know you have, and I’m sorry my family is so democratic. But, your family doesn’t exactly love me, either.” He wraps an arm around her waist and places a soft kiss on her jaw, “Laurel, how about for Thanksgiving, we just stay here, or go wherever you want, anywhere in the country.” She looks down at him, giving him a smirk he’d never seen before, “How about New York? I’ve always wanted to see the parade from a hotel view instead of on TV.” He lets out an exasperated sigh, “Fine, I will book our hotel and stuff when I get to work.” He looks down at his watch, “Which, I am going to be late for if I don’t leave now.” Laurel gets up off his lap and gives him a quick, goodbye kiss and goes to clean up the kitchen before getting to work on her documentary. 

“Gareth, Laurel is here for you.” The new intern comes into his office, “Give me about five minutes, I need to send these emails.” Laurel walks up behind the intern, “You can't send emails with me in here?” He gets up from his desk and walks over to her, wrapping her in a hug, placing a kiss on her cheek. “I just didn't want to get distracted before I can send these out, what are you doing here?” He goes back to sit at his desk and Laurel follows behind him. “Do I distract you, Gareth?” He sits down and looks up at her, “Laurel, what are you doing here? I thought you had a deadline.” She sits down on the opposite side of his desk, “I finished and wanted to make sure you booked our hotel and flight.” He hits send on the final email and looks back to her, “You could've just called. But, yes I booked them, we are in the middle of the parade, in a suite on the 3rd floor.” Once he closes his laptop, he reaches behind him and grabs his coat, “You want to go to dinner? I’m done for the day.” She stands up with him and they head out of the office.

“So, little Laurel Healy was a big fan of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, huh?” He takes her hand as they walk through the park, “Hey, don’t make fun of me, it was the only thing I had on Thanksgiving that wasn’t out of my control, I love watching the Broadway performances and everything.” He looks down at her, a small smile creeping up on his lips, “I would give anything to see 8 year old you watching the TV, just the happiest on the planet.” She stops them and turns to face him, “You’ll have to wait and see me when I can witness it in real life.” He leans down and kisses her softly, “I can’t wait.”


	20. Thanksgiving Day Plans Part 2

“Laurel, are you ready to go yet? We are gonna miss our flight!” Gareth yells from the front door of their apartment, “Hold on, I need my blanket!” He goes into the living room and grabs it from the couch, “You mean this one?” She rolls her suitcase to him to take, while she grabs her blanket and throws it in her backpack, “Okay, I’m ready.” He grabs her arm, “Wait, I forgot one thing.” She looks around, confused, “What’d you forget?” He places a finger under her chin and leans in placing a kiss on her lips, “I love you.” She pulls back from him, biting her lip, “I love you too, Gare. Now, let’s go.” 

 

“Oh man, it’s been way too long since I’ve been in New York.” Laurel says, getting her suitcase from baggage claim, scooting it towards Gareth to take, “It is my first time here.” They walk out of the airport and get into a cab. 

 

“Gareth, we should go walk around the city, since you’ve never been.” He gets up off the bed and over to his suitcase, “We are in the city for an entire week, Laurel, we have plenty of time.” She walks up behind him, wrapping her arms around his midsection, “I thought that Gareth Michael Ritter, the big sap from Indiana would want to take a romantic stroll through Central Park.” He turns around with a big smile on his face, he wraps his arms around Laurel’s waist and hers move to his neck, “Fine, I can’t say no to that. But, can we get some hot chocolate on our way?” 

 

“This is absolutely beautiful, isn’t it Gareth?” She looks up at him and he’s looking down at her with a giant smile on his face, “You’re absolutely beautiful.” She lets out a laugh, that sounded a little more hysterical than he would’ve liked. “What?” He asks, genuinely confused, “That was so cheesy, Gareth.” He lets go of her hand and wraps an arm around her shoulders, “But it’s true, you look really beautiful with the snow falling.” She giggles and turns back to look at the park. 

 

“Gareth, we should go to Rockefeller Plaza tomorrow.” Gareth stares straight ahead, the cutest smirk on his face,   
“Why are you making that face?”   
“Because I got us tickets to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular for tomorrow night.” As they walk up to the doors of their hotel, Laurel turns around and wraps her arms around Gareth’s neck, “You spoil me too much.” He places a kiss on her forehead, “Are you complaining?” She returns his kiss with one on the lips,   
“No, thank you for the tickets, Gareth. I love you.”   
“I love you too, Laurel.” 

 

When they get up to their room, Laurel starts unpacking her suitcase, “Gareth, what are we going to do for dinner?” He falls back onto the bed,   
“What are you wanting to do?”   
“There’s a really great restaurant in Greenwich, they’ve got the best mac and cheese and the best desserts.” She turns around and sits on the bed next to where he’s lying down, “Sounds good, when do you want to go?” He reaches his arm over to her, lightly massaging her lower back, “We can go after we change.” She stands up and extends her arms to help him off the bed, “What do you want me to wear?” She scoffs, “You think that I believe that you actually care what I want you to wear? If I so much as look at your closet and point to something that I think looks nice, you roll your eyes at me.” He wraps his arms around her and laughs into her hair, “I’m not that bad.” She pulls away from him, “Gareth, it took you five minutes to choose a pair of socks to wear to the airport this morning. I sat and watched you rummage through your sock drawer for five whole minutes.” 

 

“So, when was the last time you were in New York?” Gareth asks, taking a bite of his burger, “I was here about a year and a half ago for a film festival.” He looks down at her plate of fries, then back up at her, “Did you enter a film in the festival?” She smiles at him, “Gareth do you want some of my fries? Since you scarfed yours down so fast?” He nods at her, smiling. She takes one off her plate and feeds it to him from across the table, “I didn’t have one entered in the festival, but my boyfriend at the time did and he offered to help me network. He ended up cheating on me instead with another documentarian.” She said, completely emotionless when it came to her ex. Gareth reaches across the table and takes Laurel’s hand, “Shit, Laurel. How far into the trip did that happen?” She picks up her glass of wine, taking a small sip, “The first night. I couldn’t afford another hotel room and neither could he, so we had to share a hotel room and bed for a week after I broke up with him.” She doesn’t seem entirely hurt by it, but she also doesn’t seem like she’s completely over it, “Laurel, I’m sorry, that’s awful.” He brings her hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles, lightly, “I would never hurt you, ever.” She smiles up at him, “I know, can we get dessert? I really want some chocolate.” He chuckles at her and finishes his burger, “Yes, we can get dessert, but only if I get a kiss.” She leans up on her elbows and leans into Gareth, placing a sweet kiss on his lips. “Thank you, you have earned whatever dessert you want.”


	21. Thanksgiving Day Plans Part 3

This past week in New York was amazing for Gareth, he got to see Laurel the happiest he’d ever seen, and he was the most excited to see how she’d react to watching the parade in person. “Gareth, can I wear your flannel? This sweater isn’t warm enough.” He takes it off and puts it over Laurel’s shoulders, “Is that better?” He asks, putting an arm around her shoulders, “Yes it is, thank you.” She reaches up and pecks him on the lips, “How long until it starts?” She reaches over to his watch, “We still have ten minutes, Gareth, why is time going so slow?” She sounds just like a kid on Christmas, and Gareth is loving every second of it. “Hey, at least we are out here in time and not having to rush.” 

 

“Gareth, look at the balloons, oh my god, they’re so much prettier in person.” He looks over at her, and places a kiss on her temple, “I love how excited you are right now. It’s the cutest thing.” She gets up from her chair and sits down on Gareth’s lap, “Thank you for doing this with me, Gare.” He smiles as he nuzzles his face into Laurel’s neck, “I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else.” He places a kiss on her collarbone as she continues staring down at the parade, “This really is the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen.” 

 

“Gareth, let’s go see a Broadway show.” He throws his head back against the headboard, “Laurel, let’s just lie here for a bit, I’m so tired.” She lays down next to him, “Can we go to one later?” He nods his head as she curls up next to him to sleep. 

 

“Let’s see Hamilton, Laurel.” She takes his laptop from his lap and scrolls down, “Or, we could see Wicked.” He snarls his nose at her and takes his computer back, “Gareth, I’m not going to see a show that starts argument between us, let’s see Wicked.” He sighs over-dramatically, “Fine, we will see Wicked, but I choose where we go for dinner.” She pecks him on the cheek, “Deal.”   
As they walk through Times Square, Gareth can’t seem to wrap his head around the people that actually like living here, “I hate Times Square.” Laurel bundles up closer to him, “Why? I love it, it’s so beautiful at night.” They get to the theatre and head inside to watch the show. 

 

“What’d you think, Gareth?” He takes her hand as they walk out of the theatre and into the busy streets of New York City, “It wasn’t bad, I actually enjoyed parts of it.” Laurel laughs at him trying to hide the fact that he did tear up a bit in some parts, she saw him out of the corner of her eye. “Come on, you loved it.” He looks down at her, “If I admit to enjoying it, will you stop? Cause I’m starving and want to eat.” They walk over to a random cafe and get something to hold them over till they get back to the hotel since Gareth wants to order room service all of a sudden. 

 

“Laurel, what do you want to eat?” She shrugs as she throws on the hotel robe and grabs the remote to the TV, “Gareth, I don’t want to leave New York, let’s move up here.” He picks up the room phone, “You’re kidding, right?” She shrugs and moves over to make room for him on the bed, “I don’t know, are we really going to stay in DC forever?” He starts ordering their food before he can respond to her question, which annoys her, but she deals with it until he’s done. “Laurel, my career is in DC, why wouldn’t we stay there?” If looks could kill, “Gareth, I gave up LA, where my career was to be with you in DC. Why wouldn’t we leave DC?” She gets up off the bed and goes to the bathroom to brush her hair out, now that it’s dry, “Because Laurel, my job requires me to be in DC, I can’t leave. Your job can be done anywhere, mine can’t.” She looks in the bedroom at Gareth before slamming the bathroom door shut. “Laurel, come on. I’m sorry, honey.” He walks over to the bathroom and leans against the door, “Baby, open the door, I know I’m an idiot, I’m sorry.” She opens the door a little bit, “Gareth, I’m tired of politics, okay? That’s why I want to leave.” He pushes the door open enough to grab her and pull her into a hug, “I’m sorry, I know how much you hate politics. How about we look into other ways I can do my job without living in DC twenty-four-seven, and we can look into living somewhere else, okay?” She pulls away and wraps her arms around his neck, before she can kiss him, their room service gets there.


	22. Thanksgiving Day Plans Part 4

When Laurel and Gareth got back to their apartment in DC, they were exhausted, but Gareth had to go in for a meeting, leaving Laurel alone in their apartment. When he got back, she had a dinner of quesadillas and wine laid out in the dining room for him, “Laurel, what’s this for?” She comes out of the kitchen and wraps her arms around his neck, “Just a thank you for the New York trip, and making it the best trip ever.” He grabs her hips and smiles at her, “You’re being weird, what’s going on?” She shrugs and he leads them over to the dining room table, “Come on, I know you, you aren’t usually this peppy when running on no sleep. You especially don’t ever make me dinner.” They sit down at the table and Laurel pulls out her phone, “I got an email today, I was offered the chance to write and direct a new documentary for the democratic candidate running for senate.” Gareth’s jaw dropped, “Laurel, that’s amazing. Are you going to take it?” He takes her phone to read the email, “I don’t know yet, do you think I should?” He reads through the email, then hands her phone back, “I absolutely think you should take it, that’s a huge deal, I’m so proud of you.” He leans up and gives her a quick kiss, “Alright, I’ll take it. I might be in your office more often now, is that okay?” He looks at her, confused,  
“I have to get b-roll and footage of the senate offices, and I might come out just to have lunch or edit while you work.”  
“Ohh, then that’s perfectly okay, I love it when you visit me at work. It makes my days less stressful.” 

 

At 6:30 the next morning, Laurel is woken up by Gareth turning the shower on, she falls back asleep until he gets out and sits down next to her on the bed, in nothing but his towel. “Gareth, get off, you’re dripping wet.” He situates himself so that he’s lying down, and then wraps his arms around her, “Gareth, stop! Let me sleep!” He kisses her temple, “Laurel, we have to go Christmas shopping today.” She turns around and looks up at Gareth, “It’s not even seven o’clock in the morning, Gareth, get off the bed and go to work.” 

 

Gareth can’t work on anything for most of the day, because all he can think about is getting home to Laurel. “Hey, Angela, can you take my calls for the rest of the day? I have to head out early.” He asks his intern before leaving the office,  
“You got it, going out with Laurel tonight?”  
“We are gonna go out and do a little Christmas shopping, and probably get a tree.” 

 

“Laurel, I’m home! I’m just going to change into some jeans and then we can go to the mall.” She walks out of the bathroom, all ready to go, “Alright, hurry up, I’m hungry.” She goes over to him and gives him a quick peck on the lips as he undoes the buttons on his shirt, “Laurel, do you have the list of who we need to shop for?” She goes over to her purse and digs through it before holding up a piece of paper, “Yep, right here.” Gareth throws on some khaki joggers and a flannel, and then his less nice loafers, “Gareth, are you not gonna wear like sneakers or something?” He looks down at his feet, “Why?” She waves her hand toward the window, “It’s snowing outside, Gare.” He groans and goes to change his shoes before they head out. 

 

“Okay, we need something for your mom, dad, my mom and Luke. Oh, and baby Grace.” Gareth takes Laurel’s hand and leads her into the first store he sees, which of course is a baby store. “Oh my god, Laurel, this would be so cute on Grace.” She looks up at him, completely unamused, “Try to contain yourself, babe, she’s just my niece.” He holds up a cute little pink dress, “Laurel, let’s have a baby.” Her head shoots up to look at him from the stuffed animals she’s looking at, “Gareth, we just moved in together, we aren’t even engaged, let alone ready to have a baby.” He walks over to her, grabbing her hand, “I’m joking, Laurel, relax. Obviously we will wait till we’re married.” She rolls her eyes and shows him the stuffed animal she found, “I thought it would be appropriate, so she’d always think of her uncle Gareth.” He takes the stuffed elephant from her and chuckles at it, “It’s perfect, what else should we get?” Laurel gets a panicked look on her face, “We need more?” He laughs at her as he puts the dress back, “Yes, this stuffed animal is literally 20 dollars, I usually spend like 50, at least, on my sister.” She raises her eyebrows, “Luke isn’t getting anything from me anymore this year. I don’t know what else babies like.” Gareth drags her over to the clothing and picks out a couple of things, “Here, I’ll go pay for these, you go to the next store over and shop for your mom.” 

 

When they get home from shopping, Gareth puts all the bags of things in the living room for them to sort through. “Laurel, before we go through everything, we should probably get the tree off the car.” She sulks on the couch and Gareth opens the front door again, “Laurel, all you have to do is hold the door open, I will bring the tree in.” She gets up and stands next to him, “Are you saying I can’t help carry the tree because I’m a woman?” He laughs and pulls her outside with him, “I hate you.” She holds the door open for him as he unties the tree from the car and struggles to carry it in. “You need any help, Gare?” He huffs walking through the door, “Nope, I’ve got it, can you get the apartment door?” She walks ahead of him and opens the door, “Thanks babe.” Once he gets it inside, Laurel sets up the stand and water so he can put the tree in it. When it’s up, he takes a step back and looks at it, Laurel wrapping her arms around his abdomen, “I love it.” He wraps his arms around her shoulders, “I love it too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's kind of anti-climatic but it's cute and cuddly so...


	23. Gareth Gets Homesick

Gareth had been acting weird the past few days, he was really clingy to Laurel, the way he only gets when he’s sick, and he was texting Cathy and calling his parents multiple times a day.   
Today, he insisted on Laurel coming into work with him, which she only did because he begged her.   
“Laurel, for dinner tonight can you make your quesadillas?” She looks up from her laptop, “Yeah, I thought we were gonna go out, but that’s fine.” He gets up from his desk and sits next to her on the couch, “We can go out if you want to, I just don’t feel very good.”   
She puts her hand on his forehead, “What’s wrong? You don’t feel warm or anything.” He leans in and kisses her, softly and quickly. “Can we go home for the rest of the day?” She nods, closing her laptop and putting her bag together.   
“Laurel, come lie down with me.” She walks into the bedroom and lies down on the bed next to him, “Are you feeling any better?” He grabs his phone from the bedside table and turns to face her, “No, will you FaceTime my sister with me? She’s home for a few days.” She scoots closer to him and faces with her back to him, he wraps an arm around her stomach.   
“Oh! Gareth, oh my goodness!” His mom yelps as Cathy turns the phone to face his mom, “Hi momma, I miss you.” Laurel rubs his hand that’s resting on her stomach with her thumb, “Gareth, why aren’t you at work? It’s 4 o’clock.” Laurel speaks up for him, “He hasn’t been feeling very well so he came home early today.”   
“Gareth, are you drinking lots of water? I don’t want you to get dehydrated if you’re sick.” He chuckles at his mom’s concern, “I’m fine, mom. Really, I just need sleep, I’ve been staying at work late a lot more recently.” Nora tells him to hang up so he can get some rest, before he can talk to his dad, he hangs up the call.   
When Laurel looks up at him, his eyes looks puffy and it looks like he has tears forming in his eyes, “Gareth, what’s wrong?” She turns to face him and wraps her arms around his midsection, placing her head in the crook of his neck.   
“I just miss it sometimes. Usually when work starts to get crazy, I just really miss how simple everything is there.” He tightens his grip on her and lets out a deep breath, “Do you want to take a trip home?” He places a kiss on the top of her head, “No, I need to stay up here. I’ll be okay.” She pulls the covers over them more and Gareth closes his eyes.

After Gareth has been asleep for a bit, Laurel makes him some quesadillas for when he wakes up.   
“Laurel?” A groggy voice comes into the kitchen, “Hey baby, you alright?” She walks over to him and he wraps her into a hug, “I still feel sick, but now it’s my head and stuff.”   
“Do you want some food? I made quesadillas.” He pulls away from the hug and she goes to get some plates together.   
“Laurel, would you be okay with me staying here at home tomorrow? I don’t want to go into work.” She finishes her last bite and gets out of her chair, moving to his lap. “Are you sure?” He rests his head on her shoulder and kisses her neck, “Yeah, I just want to be around you right now. I really can’t deal with the idiots at work.” She kisses the top of his head before getting up, dragging him to their bedroom. 

Laurel places soft kisses to Gareth’s collarbone as she cuddles up closer to him. He pulls the sheet up a bit and pulls her into his side. “Thank you for helping me feel better.”   
“You’re welcome, are you sure you don’t want to visit your family? I don’t mind being here alone for a few days.” He looks down at her, “Why wouldn’t you come with me?” She sits up, resting her hand on his chest.  
“Gareth, your dad hates me, I don’t think he’d be delighted to have me in his home for a few days.” He repositions himself so he’s spooning Laurel, “But I want you to see where I grew up.”   
He places small kisses on her jaw and down her neck, “Fine, I’ll go with you. I guess this outline can wait a week or two.” She turns her head to face him and he kisses her softly. “Thank you, I love you, Laurel.” She repeats it back to him before they both fall asleep.


	24. Election Day Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post these on actual election day, but I am just now getting around to actually finishing them.

“Gareth, do you really think we need to go together?” Laurel asks, slipping on her shoe. “Yes, I do. It’s easier to just go together.” He walks over to her after fixing his tie in the mirror.  
“Fine, but I need to know who you’re voting for.” He extends a hand to her, to pull her off the foot of the bed, “I’m not telling.”  
“You’re not?” She rolls her eyes as he wraps his arms around her waist, “It doesn’t matter who I vote for, Laurel.”  
She grabs his face in her hands, “It matters if, as a woman, I am directly affected by it.” He pulls back, offended, “What about me? I’m a man, have you thought about how your vote could affect me?”  
She takes his hands from her waist, and peels them off, “You need to check your privilege Gareth.”  
“What do you mean?” She walks over to get her phone off the nightstand and put it in her bag, “You’re a straight, white man, working for a republican senator. I think you’re alright no matter who wins.” 

When they get to their polling station, Laurel takes a deep breath, “What’s wrong?” Gareth asks, wrapping an arm around her waist.  
“Nothing, I’m fine.” He looks up at her with pleading eyes, “Laurel, what is it?”  
“I’m just worried about the outcome of the election, that’s all.” He leans in and kisses her jaw, “It’ll be okay, just relax.” 

They go in at the same time to vote, and emerge from behind the curtain simultaneously. Laurel leans over to look at Gareth’s ballot, “I don’t think so.” He says, pulling his arm away. He leans over to look at hers, “No.” She pulls it close to her chest. 

“Just tell me who you voted for, Gareth.” He puts down the pot he’s holding and turns to look at Laurel, “I’m trying to make you a nice dinner to calm your nerves while we watch the election. Will you shut up?” She throws her head back and Gareth walks over to where she’s sitting on the counter, “Listen,” he places his hands on either sides of her hips, “I am not telling you who I voted for, because I would like to continue having a sex life.”  
“So, you voted for Trump.” She throws her hands up and jumps off the counter, walking into the living room. “Laurel, come on.” He sits down next to her on the couch, “I work for a republican senator, I’m from a very conservative family. What did you expect?”  
“I don’t know. Maybe show a little sympathy to why I hate Trump so much.” He rests his head on the back of the couch, and extends his arms to Laurel. She scoots over to him and sits in between his legs, he wraps his arms around her and nestles his head into her shoulder. “I love you, Laurel, I do. And, I understand why you hate Trump, at this moment, he’s not someone I’m proud to have voted for. But, you have to understand my side of it, too.”  
“I do, it’s just I can’t wrap my head around voting for a rapist and homophobic ass.” He kisses her shoulder blade and then picks his head up, “Laurel, I know. I’m sorry we don’t agree on this. But, what’s done is done.” She turns around to face him, “I know, I just really cannot stand him.” He picks her chin up with his index finger, “I love you, Laurel Healy, you annoying liberal.” She leans in to kiss him, hovering over his lips, “I love you, Gareth Ritter, you asshole republican.” 

 

“Laurel?” He looks over at her, as she sits expressionless on the couch. “Sweetheart, are you alright?” He moves closer to her, and wraps his arms around her. She gives in and falls into him, crying. “I can’t believe this.” Gareth tries to be more sympathetic than pleased, it’s becoming easier than it would be if the woman he loves wasn’t crying into his chest.  
“It’s okay, Laurel. It’s gonna be alright.” He whispers into her hair, as he gently rubs her back.

After a few more moments of comforting Laurel, Gareth looked at the clock on his phone, “Sweetheart, it’s 3:30, do you want to go to bed?” She nods and Gareth helps her up.  
“Gareth, I’m sorry if I offend you, but why is America so stupid?” She climbs into bed, Gareth following and wrapping her up in his arms, “I don’t know, Laurel, I wish I did.” She knew that he didn’t completely regret voting for Trump, but it was still nice to hear him trying to be there for her. 

 

The next day, Gareth didn’t have to go into work so he and Laurel stayed in bed for quite some time. “Gareth, I’m hungry.” He rubs his thumb on her arm that’s draped over his stomach. “We can go out to get brunch, if you want.” She sits up, resting her hands on his chest, “I don’t feel like leaving the apartment, can you just make something here?”  
“What’s wrong? We can go to your favorite restaurant.” He tries coaxing her into going with him.  
“I just don’t feel comfortable going out right now. Can we please stay in?” He sits up on his elbow, “Laurel,” she lies back down with her head in his arm, “hey, it’s alright, I’ll be with you the whole time. Why don’t you feel comfortable going out?”  
“I mean, other than the fact that I’m the sister of a democratic icon? Did you see the news last night, Gareth?” He looks down at her, confused, “Gare, there are men out there that think they can sexually assault women now that he is president.”  
He leans back and pulls Laurel into his chest. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t worry about that. I’ll be with you the whole time we are at brunch, okay? I promise.” She presses a kiss to his collarbone, “Fine, we can go out. But, we are coming home right after, I have work to get done.”  
He lifts her head up to meet his, he places a soft kiss to her lips, then her forehead. “Do you need a shower, or not?” She shakes her head, throwing the blankets off of them. “I’m not gonna try to look good today.” 

“Gareth, I really don’t feel very well.” He rubs circles around her back, “It’s okay, Laurel, I’m here with you. Just try not to think about it.”  
She felt like everyone there was staring at her, even though it was only really a couple of people. “Ritter, party of two?” Gareth nods at the hostess, “Right this way.” 

“I think I might get the quiche, what about you, Laurel?” She looks up at him confused, “What?”  
He reaches his arm across the table and takes her hand in his, “Sweetheart, relax, I’m right here.” She shakes her head and looks ahead of Gareth, “That guy over there keeps staring at us.” Gareth turns around, “Laurel, who cares? Just figure out what you want to eat, I’m gonna get the quiche, do you wanna split it?” She looks back at the menu and agrees to splitting with him.  
A few minutes later, She looks back up and sees the guy staring again, “Gareth, he’s looking over here again.” Gareth gets up from his seat and sits next to Laurel on the booth, he takes her face in his hands and kisses her, so passionate and warm that Laurel can’t even remember why she was so upset in the first place. When Gareth pulls away, he looks Laurel in the eye, “Now, can we please enjoy brunch for once? I don’t want my whole day off of work to be you distracted by some random person who doesn’t matter.” He gets back up and moves over to his seat and the man that was staring at them walks over to their booth.  
“Excuse me, are you Gareth Ritter?” Gareth looks at Laurel, confused, before looking at the extremely angry man standing next to them. “Yes, I am. Can I help you with something?” 

“Are you Laurel Healy? Luke’s sister?” She nods, tentatively. “You’re dating a liberal? Why the hell would you be dating a Hillary supporter? I heard you got an abortion, Laurel, and you don’t even care about that, Gareth?”  
Gareth looks at Laurel, as her entire face goes white, “Excuse me, I don’t know who you are or why you’re attacking me, but I’d appreciate being able to eat with my girlfriend in peace?” 

“She’s the reason people hate America, her entire goddamn family is. I hope someone shows you what women are really for.” Laurel stands up, Gareth can see her hands shaking. “I really hope you realize that I am a person, I am not a politician like my family. I’ve done absolutely nothing to offend you or anyone. Leave us alone.”  
Laurel looks him straight in the eye, just before the man’s hand connects with her face. Slapping her so hard, she knocks into the booth. Gareth jumps out of his seat and down to where Laurel fell.  
“Laurel, are you alright?” She looks up at him, tears in her eyes as the man is walking away. “I’ll fix this, Laurel. Just, let me take you home, okay?” He stands up, helping her off the ground. Now, everyone’s eyes are on her.  
Gareth wraps his hand around her head, pushing her face into his shoulder as he tries for them to be less of the center of attention. 

 

“Laurel, I am so sorry about that.” He helps her inside and she sits down on their couch. “Just get me something for my face.” He lets out a sigh before going into the kitchen to get an ice pack.  
“Laurel, what can I do to make this right? I had no idea that would happen.” She looks up from her laptop, “Gareth, he hit me. That’s done. I need you to find him and I need you as a right wing senate chief of staff, to write your boss a speech, and stop what is happening.”  
“Laurel, I can’t just do that.” She closes her laptop and gets up from the couch, “You told me that you moved to DC to get something done and to right the wrongs done in this country. So do something and make this right.” She walks away to their bedroom.


	25. Election Day Part 2

“Sir, I think this is a very important topic to cover in your next speech.” Gareth speaks up after hearing from Red that he’s not taking the liberal’s side on anything.   
“Gareth, I know your girlfriend is a democrat, but you are not and neither am I. We aren’t going against the president-elect.” Gareth spins his phone in his hand, clearly annoyed at this situation.   
“Senator, I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say. People are getting hurt and it needs to stop.” Red puts his hand on Gareth’s shoulder, “Alright, one speech, but that’s it. And do not deface Trump in any way.” 

 

“Laurel, Red is allowing me to write the speech, do you wanna help me out?” When he doesn’t hear a reply, he calls for her again, “Laurel? Are you here?” All of a sudden he hears a retching sound coming from the bathroom. He sets down his bag and runs into the bathroom.   
“Laurel, what’s wrong?” He asks as she leans back onto the bathtub. “I don’t know, I just wasn’t having a good day, and then I turned on the TV and saw Trump supporters and what they were saying and I just got so worked up…” He kneels down onto the tile floor and wraps his arms around her, “Laurel, honey, you need to relax.” She starts sobbing again, and a minute later, she’s back to puking.   
Gareth rubs soothing circles on her back and holds her hair back with his other hand. “Laurel, sweetheart.” Once she’s done, he grabs her toothbrush for her and goes to get a washcloth as she’s brushing her teeth.   
“Here, let’s get you to bed and I’ll make you some soup. You can help me write my speech for Red while you relax.” She looks up at him, excitedly, “He’s letting you write it?” Gareth nods as Laurel jumps up, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

 

“Say something about how you’ve seen firsthand what’s going on since the election. Let the people know how important it is to stand together and not separate based on beliefs.” He looks up at her from his laptop, “How about we skip writing this for now and do something a little more relaxing?” He closes his computer and goes to set it on the floor.   
“Gareth, we need to write this.”   
“My head isn’t clear enough for that right now.” Gareth whines as he lies down on his side, running his arm over Laurel’s stomach. “Gareth, I want you to finish this speech so that you can give it to Red.”   
“Laurel, I’ll write it as soon as we finish, I promise. I’ll get us a bottle of wine and we will bust this speech out right after.” She smiles down at him, before jumping up to straddle him. 

 

“Here’s your glass of wine, and here is your bowl of strawberries, as you requested.” Laurel pulls the sheets up to her bare chest as she takes what Gareth is holding. “Thank you. Now, let’s get to work on this speech.”   
Gareth picks up his laptop off the floor and pulls the covers over his legs. “Where were we?” Laurel asks before taking a sip of her wine.   
“We were discussing how we’ve seen firsthand the effects that his supporters have had on the country so far.” She picks up a strawberry out of the bowl and Gareth opens his mouth for her to feed it to him, “Not until you finish writing this.” 

 

After three hours of writing, a bottle of wine, and at least 20 arguments later; the speech is finished. “Okay, I really need sleep, what time is it?” Gareth sets his laptop on the floor before lying down with his head on Laurel’s shoulder.   
“It’s 3 a.m., I’m gonna go brush my teeth again, get off me.” He nestles into her shoulder, and wraps an arm around her abdomen.   
“Gareth.”   
“Shh, I’m sleeping.” 

 

“Gareth, buddy, this speech is great.” Gareth smirks as he looks up at his boss, “Thank you, Red, Laurel will be happy to hear that you liked it.”   
“Why’s that?” Gareth looks back down at his computer, “Hmm?” Red walks toward his desk, “Why is Laurel gonna be happy to hear that?”   
“She helped write it, she’s one of the girls that was affected by it, it’s in the speech.” He takes a seat on the other side of Gareth’s desk. “The girl that was hit?” He nods, getting slightly uncomfortable.   
“Why’d you let him do that, Gareth?”   
“I didn’t-” He stops himself, really thinking about what Red asked him. “I have to go, Red, I’ll be back tomorrow.” He gets up, grabbing his jacket and laptop and running out the door.

 

“Laurel, I am so so sorry.” Gareth bursts through the door, “I should’ve stood up for you more, I’m so sorry I let him come anywhere near you.” He runs to the couch, where Laurel is sitting, “What are you talking about, Gareth?”   
“The guy at the restaurant the other day. I shouldn’t have let him get close enough to you to touch you, I’m so sorry.” She sets her laptop on the coffee table, “Gareth, I’m fine.” She grabs his face and leans into him.   
“Laurel, I’m serious, you shouldn’t even have that bruise on your face. I should’ve done something to help you.” She drops her hands and rolls her eyes, “This is exactly what I was afraid of. You thinking you have to protect me all the time, just because I’m the woman. I’m fine, I can handle some asshole who thinks he’s strong because he can hit someone.”   
“But Laurel, I-”   
“No, I’m fine, so stop. Why are you even home?” He slumps there, not knowing what to say, “Red and I were talking about the speech and I told him that you were one of the people I mentioned in the speech. He asked me why I let that happen to you, and I had no idea so I ran home to apologize and make it right.”   
She chuckles at how cute he was when he was defeated. “Gareth, you didn’t have to do that, I’m over it. Just relax.” He smiles up at her and leans in to kiss her. 

 

“You know, you’re really cute when you realize how stupid you are.” Laurel runs her index finger down his chest. “What do you mean? I’m not stupid.” He grabs her hand that’s on his chest and interlocks their fingers, “When you came home from work early, for no reason. Remember that?” He looks at her, pretending to be offended, “I came home because I needed to apologize to my girlfriend, how is that for no reason?”   
“FIrst of all, you’ve been apologizing since it happened, just for the wrong thing so the fact that it took your boss to make you realize why I was mad…” He sits up a bit so her head is now on his shoulder, he looks down at her, his face completely turned serious.   
“Laurel, I really am sorry. I never want to see you hurt in any capacity, I love you.” She stretches up to kiss him, “I love you too. But, really, I’m fine.”


	26. Christmas in Indiana Part 1

“Gareth, let’s go, we should’ve been on the road two hours ago.” He emerges from the bedroom, two suitcases and a large duffle bag in tow.   
“Can you take your suitcase? It’s squishing the presents.” She walks over and grabs it before opening the front door and heading down to their car. “Laurel, relax, we will make it in time.” She throws her suitcase in the back and helps Gareth with the bag of gifts for every single member of his family. 

“Gareth, what’s your family like at Christmas?” He lets out a breath and reaches his hand out to her hand. “It’s crazy, my mom lives for Christmas, though. It’s her favorite holiday.” She smiles up at him as he continues talking about their traditions and how him and his sister would fight over who got to put the star on top of the tree.   
“Do you guys bake cookies and everything too?” He gently rubs the back of her hand with his thumb, “Yeah, of course we do. Did you as a kid?” She shakes her head and looks off at the road, “Not really, my mom would order some fancy ones from whatever bakery she chose that year, that’s about it.”   
“Well, if you tell my mom that, she’ll make sure to let you help her bake. We will be in North Judson for a few days, but then we will go to Jasper Indiana for the week of Christmas.” She looks up at him, confused, “Why there?”   
“My uncle rents a couple cabins for Christmas week and they’re usually really big, and this year, I convinced him to get one big one and one smaller one for us.” She reaches up to turn on the radio, “That’s really sweet, Gare.”   
When the radio comes on, the first song is a Christmas one, “Oh good god.” She goes to change the station when Gareth goes to turn it up, “I love Christmas music.” Laurel wrinkles her nose and leans back in her seat, “We’ve been listening to it since November 1st.”   
“Because it puts everyone in a good mood,” he glances over at her, “well, most everyone.” She sends a glare over at him, “I’m sorry, but it’s snowing and it’s really Christmas-y outside, I want to listen to Christmas music.” 

 

“Gareth, how much longer?” Laurel whines. “Just about another hour, do you want to actually talk to me instead of editing now?”   
“Gareth, this is my job.” She gestures toward her laptop.  
“Laurel, it’s Christmas. Put it away and talk to me.” She closes her laptop and sets it in her bag, reaching over to grab Gareth’s hand.   
After a moment of silence, Gareth speaks up, “So, what do you want for Christmas?” She looks over at him, raising her eyebrows, “Are you serious? Have you not gotten my present yet?”   
“You know, for a fairly selfless person, you’re very materialistic.” She jolts back, “I’m sorry that I find it odd for my boyfriend to be asking me what I want for Christmas, a week before Christmas.”   
“Laurel, I’m just making conversation, I’ve had your gift for a while now, well most of it, the other part should be at my parents’ house.” She looks at him confused, “Why at their house?”   
“I had it sent there when I ordered it, so you wouldn’t go snooping and find it. My mom said she’d wrap it for me when it came in.” He lifts her hand to his lips, placing a small kiss on her knuckles. Laurel giggles and leans over to kiss Gareth on the cheek. 

 

Before they knew it, they were pulling into the familiar driveway of the farmhouse. Nora runs out of the door, with her arms open as Laurel gets out of the car. “Oh my goodness! You guys are here! I’m so happy!” She hugs Laurel and then goes to Gareth as he’s unpacking the car.   
“Cathy! Your brother and Laurel are here!” Nora yells up the stairs. Cathy opens her door and comes running down, jumping into Gareth’s open arms. “I missed you monkey.” He says squeezing her shoulders tight. “I missed you too Gareth.”   
Once they all catch up, Gareth pulls Laurel into the living room to show her the tree. His favorite part of Christmas at home was always going and getting a tree as a family. “I haven’t helped pick it out in three years.” He tightens his grip on her waist, “I wish we could’ve been here to do that, Gareth, I’m sorry.” He kisses the top of her head, “It’s alright, you had to be in LA for a week, I wanted to wait for you.”   
“Gareth, Laurel, come get something to eat.” They’re taken away from their moment by his mom making an early dinner for them.   
“What’d you make momma?” Laurel loved how quickly he went back to being Indiana Gareth when they were here, his age decreases by about 15 years most of the time. “Your favorite; chili with macaroni, and peanut butter sandwiches.”   
“Why peanut butter sandwiches?” Laurel asks, Gareth looks at her, completely shocked. “It’s amazing with chili, you’ve never had it?” She shakes her head, “Oh my god, Laurel, you missed out as a kid.” He hands her two sandwich halves, “Here, try it.” She dips the corner of the sandwich in the soup and takes a bite, “Oh wow, that’s so good.”   
“So, Laurel, how’s the documentary going?” Sam starts making conversation, which is weird, usually it’s Nora that starts. “Pretty well, I just got back from a week in LA, pulling people on board as producers and camera and all of that.”   
Cathy looks up at Gareth, “Are you going back to DC for New Year’s Eve, Gareth?” He nods, “Yeah, why?”   
“Can I come with you guys?” He shrugs his shoulders, “I’m fine with that, but it’s up to Laurel.” Cathy looks up at Laurel with puppy eyes, “Please Laurel?” Laurel smiles down at her, “Of course you can. We just set up our guest room too, so it’s perfect.” 

 

After dinner, Gareth makes hot chocolate for him and Laurel. She sits in the living room on her laptop when he brings her a mug. “Gareth, what does this mug say?” He looks at it, his eyes growing wide, he whispers, “Make America Great Again…” She reaches it up to him to take it from her.   
“Sorry, that was my dad’s. Here’s a ‘World’s Greatest Mom’ mug.” She rolls her eyes and takes it from him. He pushes her up and sits behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, “What are you working on?” He kisses her temple, “I’m trying to finish getting hotel reservations together for people coming from LA, and then I have to confirm our equipment from the donors and sponsors.”   
“Lo, come on, it’s Christmastime, let’s cuddle up by the tree and drink our hot cocoa. And watch a Christmas movie.” He whispers in her ear, before placing a soft kiss to her earlobe. “Gareth, this is the last thing I have to do until January, I promise.” He lets out an exasperated sigh and rests his cheek on the top of her head.   
After about an hour, Laurel finishes up her work and Gareth takes her laptop from her, placing it on the floor. “So, you want to watch a Christmas movie? Let me guess which one you wanna watch.” He picks up her hand while she’s thinking, and intertwines their fingers, “Christmas Vacation?” He chuckles into her hair, “How’d you guess?”   
“You’re Gareth Ritter, it wasn’t too hard to figure out.” He gets up and goes to set up the movie. “Gareth, can you bring me a blanket?” Before he goes to sit back down, he grabs one of the Christmas blankets out of the basket by the couch and throws it over her. He snuggles back down with her as the movie starts.   
About halfway through, Laurel falls asleep. Gareth finishes it out and then picks her up to go to his bedroom. When he lays her down on the bed, she wakes up, “What’s going on?” He takes off his flannel, leaving him in joggers and a tank top, “You fell asleep during the movie, so I brought you up to bed.” He lies down next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist from behind, “Relax, go to sleep.”


	27. Christmas in Indiana Part 2

“So, Laurel, how would you like to go with me and get some things for dinner?” Nora asks Laurel as they finish up the dishes. “I’d love to, but I think Gareth wanted me to do something with him later, so I’ll double check with him.” It was a complete lie, but Laurel couldn’t be alone with Gareth’s mom.  
“Gareth, tell your mom we already had plans for today. She wants me to go grocery shopping with her.” She runs into their room, he had apparently just gotten out of the shower, considering he was wearing only a towel. “Laurel, calm down, why don’t you want to go with her?” She gives him a look as if to say, ‘I don’t even know why you’d question me.’  
“Alright, look,” He grabs her shoulders, “I’ll tell her we are going Christmas shopping, to get you out of it, but I can’t do that the whole time we’re here. Promise me that you’ll try not to avoid her and my dad the whole time.” She lets out a noise that sounds like a whimper, but also a grunt, “Gareth, she always wants to talk about marriage and kids, and your dad always attacks me for being liberal. I want to have a normal conversation with them, like about work and stuff.”  
“Laurel, you can’t talk about work and have a normal conversation with my dad, he hates your career choice.” She throws her hands up and walks over to the bed, “Exactly, they hate me.” He sits next to her and pulls her into his chest, “Laurel, they don’t hate you. At least, my mom doesn’t hate you.” She groans into his bare chest, “You being naked is making it hard to be angry.”  
“Okay, so let me get dressed and then we'll go shopping, okay?” She flops back onto the bed after pulling away from him, “Where do people in this tiny, tiny town go shopping? If I remember correctly, there’s no mall or anything.” He gets up from the bed and starts getting dressed, “They’re called small businesses, Laurel, have you never seen those?”  
“What are we supposed to get at those stores?” He laughs, buttoning his jeans, “Laurel, I know most of the people who own these shops, we don’t have to buy anything. We can just visit with them.” She groans loudly, again, “Gareth, they are all gonna hate me. Maybe I should just get a flight back to D.C. and I’ll see you at New Year’s.” He falls back onto the bed next to her, “Laurel, they’re not gonna hate you. Or at least, they won’t make it completely obvious.” 

 

“Is that Gareth Ritter, I see?” This is the third store they’ve been in and Laurel is being pushed aside (at one point, literally), for Gareth. “Hi, Miss Ruby.” He goes to hug her as she rushes out from behind the counter. When they pull away, he grabs Laurel by the waist, “And who is this pretty lady?” Laurel extends her hand to shake, “I’m Laurel Healy, Gareth’s girlfriend.” She pushes Laurel’s hand aside and pulls her into a hug, “Oh my goodness, you’re the Laurie that Nora has been talking so much about!” Gareth can’t seem to stifle his laugh at his mother calling her ‘Laurie’ to people. 

 

“Your mother is insane.” He wraps his arm around Laurel’s shoulders, “Aww, come on, she loves you.” He pecks her on the cheek as they walk down the street.  
“Gareth,” Laurel whispers, “Mary-Anne is walking this way.” Laurel’s hands find their way into her coat pockets, while Gareth’s hand finds its way to Laurel’s lower back. 

 

“Gareth, Laurel! So good to see you!” Laurel wants to wipe that ‘innocent’, bitchy look off of her face, “You too, Mary-Anne.” Gareth leans forward, giving her a half hug and a friendly kiss on the cheek.  
Gareth elbows Laurel and she looks up at them, “Hmm? Oh, it’s nice to see you too, Mary-Anne.” Gareth smiles up at Laurel, as if to say, ‘Just a few more minutes, don’t hit her.’  
“So, Laurel, Nora tells me that you got a new assignment, congratulations, it sounds like a huge thing. I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic.” Laurel nods, tight-lipped. “Yeah, hey, will you excuse me for a moment? I forgot to call my brother.” Laurel steps away from them, Gareth running up behind her.  
“Hey, what was that? She was being nice.” She looks up at Gareth, clearly agitated, “I don’t trust her.” He wraps her in a hug, “I know you don’t, but she was being nice.” Laurel lets out a loud groan, “Why won’t I just go back to D.C.? I don’t need to be here, do I?”  
“Laurel, it’s freezing out here, let’s go back to the house and talk, okay?” He leads her back to the car, every once in a while whispering “I love you” into her ear. 

 

“Laurel, you are ridiculous, but that’s why I love you. Now, listen to me, you are staying in Indiana for the holiday, and you will realize that you absolutely should be here. My family wants you here for Christmas, they’re gonna love you.”  
She slumps on his bed, falling backwards onto her back, “Gareth, you’re a terrible liar, your family is not gonna love me. They are gonna ask me about kids and marriage and all the things I don’t want.”  
“Laurel, honey, that’s alright. If you get overwhelmed, just come find me. They are my family, I know how to shut them up.” He falls back to lie down next to her, “Gareth, I love you.”  
“I love you too, Laurel.” 

 

After a few quiet moments lying together, Nora knocks on their door, “Guys, I need your help with wrapping gifts.”  
Gareth stands up, reaching his hand out to Laurel, “Alright, we should get downstairs.” Laurel lets him pull her off the bed and they head downstairs to the living room.  
“What do you need mom?” She hands him two rolls of wrapping paper, some tape and ribbons. “Wrap the gifts in those bags over there for me, please, I need to start on packing everything up to leave tomorrow for the cabins.”  
Laurel starts pulling everything out of the shopping bags. “Wait, how are we supposed to know who's presents these are?” She looks up at Gareth, “I’ll go ask my mom.” 

 

About an hour later, they’ve finished wrapping gifts and Nora has finished packing up the car. “Gareth, will you set the table for dinner?” He goes into the dining room, leaving Nora and Laurel in the living room picking up the scraps of wrapping paper.  
“Laurel, how is your family celebrating Christmas this year?” She shrugs and stands up off the floor, “I don’t really know, ever since I was little it was always just parties within the senate, never a family thing.”  
Gareth starts to head back into the living room when he hears Laurel, “It’s just kind of always been politics, so thanks for having me out here for Christmas, I’d like to get used to the idea of a real family.”  
“Could you see yourself with kids one day with Gareth?” Laurel smiles a bit, “I want to one day, yes.” Gareth covers his mouth, a giant grin spread across his face.  
“Come on, I would hope Gareth has the table set by now.” Gareth hurries to stand behind his seat, so they wouldn’t know he was listening.  
“Hey sweetie, want to help me get the food?” He asks Laurel, kissing her on the cheek. “Yeah, I guess so.” She goes into the kitchen with him, grabbing the salad and condiments. “Laurel, hey.” She turns to face him, “Yeah?” He leans in to kiss her, when he pulls away, he looks her in the eye. “I love you, Laurel.”  
She looks up at him, slightly confused, “Yeah, I love you too, Gareth. Come on, I’m hungry.” Sam and Cathy walk in from outside, lugging firewood. “Hey guys, dinner’s ready.” Nora states, walking through the kitchen. 

 

After dinner, Laurel decides to take a shower. Gareth can’t stop thinking about what Laurel said to his mom, he can’t believe she actually wants kids now, well one day. Obviously he’s thought about marriage and kids with her, they had been dating a year and a half.  
Gareth’s snapped out of his thoughts by Laurel walking into their room, “Hey Gareth, can you get my sweatshirt out of my bag?” He goes over to their luggage and pulls her black zip up out. “Here you go.” She throws it on over her naked torso, “Laurel, come lie down with me.”  
“Your mom wants to watch a movie, though.” He runs out of the room and downstairs, leaving Laurel alone and confused in their bedroom. 

 

“She said we will wait to watch it with the rest of the family tomorrow night.” He wraps an arm around Laurel’s waist, crashing his lips into hers. He walks them backwards to the bed, when Laurel falls back onto the bed, Gareth pulls his lips off of hers.  
“Gareth, what are you doing? Your family is downstairs.” He unbuttons his flannel and throws it on the ground. “I can’t help it, I need you right now.” He jumps onto the bed, hovering over her. “Is that okay?”  
She pulls his shoulders down, kissing him hard. His hand plays with the zipper of her sweatshirt, unzipping it and pulling it off, barely breaking their lips apart. “I love you, Laurel.” She puts her hands on his chest, holding him away from her, “Are you alright, Gare?” He nods, moving down to kiss her neck, he sucks on a spot that won’t be noticeable to anyone if he leaves a mark, “Gareth, stop.”  
“What’s wrong?” He falls to his side next to her, “Gareth, something’s off with you. What’s up?”  
“I just have been thinking about us, you know? I really love you, more than I should, actually.” She smiles at him, “I love you too, Gareth. What is all of this about? You’re not usually like this, I mean not around family, that is.”  
“Okay, don’t get angry with me, please.” She raises her eyebrows, because anything that starts with that, means she’ll get angry. “I overheard what you said to my mom earlier. About how you can actually see yourself having kids with me one day.”  
“So you see ‘one day’ as getting me pregnant that same day? We aren’t even engaged, Gareth.” He presses his lips to her shoulder, “I don’t know, it just made me realize how much I want that with you. I wasn’t really thinking about it, I just wanted you so bad, and I want kids so bad.”  
“Then propose, and we will get married, then figure all of that out.” She throws her sweatshirt back on and goes to brush out her still wet hair. “Laurel Healy, will you marry me?” She turns around to see Gareth on one knee, no ring, just on one knee.  
“Funny, now get off the ground, Gareth.” He grabs her hand, kissing her knuckles. “Laurel, come on, what’s stopping us?” She chuckles a bit, before realizing that he’s actually serious. “Gareth, we’ve only been dating for barely a year. What are you doing?”  
“You know, a lot of people get married after dating for as long as we have.” He stands up, grabbing her waist and pulling her close, “Gareth, this is ridiculous.” The smirk on his face disappears and Laurel moves to put her head on his shoulder.  
“Laurel, just, think about it, please? I know it scares you, but I really do want this. And, I think that deep down, you want it too.” He places a kiss on the top of her head, then rests his cheek there. “I will think about it, but in the meantime…” She grabs his hand and pulls him over to the bed.


	28. Christmas in Indiana Part 3

“Gareth! Laurel! We are heading out!” Gareth grabs Laurel’s suitcase and carries it downstairs, “We will meet you there, momma.” He leans forward kissing Nora on the cheek and putting the suitcase in the car.  
“Laurel! Let’s go!” She runs down the stairs where Gareth is waiting for her, “We are gonna be late for dinner if we don’t leave now, come on.” They head out to the car and go on their way to the cabins.  
“So, have you thought about our conversation last night?” Gareth asks, reaching his hand across to grab hers.  
“Gareth, that was twelve hours ago, I need a bit more time.” She squeezes his hand, looking up at him with a small smile. “Okay, I understand.”  
After a few hours of Gareth trying to convince Laurel to marry him, they arrive at his uncle’s cabin. “Okay, before we go in,” Gareth starts, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning to Laurel, “My family is a bit much sometimes. So with you coming to Christmas here for the first time, they’ll be a lot.”  
She leans over and kisses him, “I’ll be fine, okay? Nothing I haven’t handled before.” He kisses her again, quickly before taking the key out of the ignition. “Okay, let’s go.” 

“There they are! Everyone this is Laurel, Gareth’s girlfriend.” She waves at everyone, as Gareth walks over to his uncle. Nora gestures for her, “Laurel, come over here and I will introduce you to everyone.”  
She leads Laurel around the room, introducing her to the entire Ritter family, which is bigger than she thought. “I’m gonna go find Gareth, Nora, is that alright?” She nods, moving out of Laurel’s way to search for Gareth.

“Oh my god, there you are.” She walks up to Gareth, who’s been in the kitchen this whole time, kissing him hard, since they’re alone. “Hey, what’s up? You alright?” She nods, putting her head on his chest, “There’s just so many people. Why do they all keep asking if I know different celebrities?”  
He wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in closer, “Because they think that you’ve worked with a bunch of actors and stuff.” She looks up at him, confused, “They know that I make documentaries, right? Not like, movies?” He chuckles before placing a kiss on her nose, “Let’s go back out here and talk to everyone.” 

“So, Laurel, how has your new project been going? Nora told us you were making a documentary for the democrat running for senate?” Gareth rubs the small of her back and leans in a bit closer, “Yes, I am. It’s going really well so far. We have a crew lined up that will be coming to D.C. in January to film.”  
“So, what is it that makes you want to work with a democratic candidate? I know you come from a long line of democrats, but I mean, you are with Gareth.” She looks over at Gareth, she’s clearly agitated, before looking back at his uncle.  
“My beliefs are 100% democratic, I may be with Gareth, but I think that most republicans have an idiotic outlook on things.” Gareth’s head jerks up to look at her, “Laurel, not today.” He whispers, so his uncle can barely hear him.  
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the restroom.” Laurel excuses herself and heads to the front door. After a moment, she is joined by Gareth on the front porch. “Laurel, what the hell? I thought you could handle it.”  
“I’m sorry, Gareth.” He sits down next to her on the porch swing, “It’s fine, he shouldn’t have even brought up politics. I told him not to.” She rests her head on his shoulder, “I thought your family wasn’t that political.”  
“My uncle is, always has been, he’s where most of my views come from.” She rolls her eyes, since he can’t see her from that angle, “I’m so thankful for him.” She says sarcastically.  
“Okay, how about after dinner, we head over to our cabin next door. There’s a fireplace and my mom put hot cocoa stuff in there.” She picks her head up, “Right after dinner?” He kisses her on the cheek, “Promise.” 

“Okay guys, this has been great, but Laurel and I are exhausted, so we are gonna head over to our place. We will see you all in the morning.” Laurel smiles at everyone as she gets up to get her coat, “Bye guys, it was nice meeting all of you.” 

“We could sit by the fire and watch a movie, or we could do something else.” Laurel grabs the collar of his shirt, pulling him close to her, “What kind of something else?” She leans up to kiss him, “What do you want to do?” She asks before kissing him again.  
“I can think of a few things.” Gareth gets off the couch and helps Laurel up. “Come on, I want to show you something.” She stands up and Gareth picks her up, bridal style, carrying her into the bedroom.  
“Gareth, what is all of this?” Gareth asked his sister to set up candles and Christmas lights along the bed. “Cathy helped me out a bit.” He lets her down on the bed, stepping in between her legs. She reaches up to kiss him again and pulls him down to her so that he’s hovering over her. “This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done, Gareth.”  
Gareth’s hands roam over Laurel’s body, before resting on her hips. “Gareth, I have an answer to that concern you had yesterday.” He leans down, placing kisses on her neck and chest, “What is it?” He asks in between kisses.  
“If you asked me to marry you, I wouldn’t say no to it.” He picks his head up, looking a bit unsure, “Are you serious? You’d say yes?” She nods, taking his face in her hands, the look on his face instantly changes. His smile is wider than Laurel had ever seen.  
“I love you, Laurel Healy.”  
“I love you, Gareth Ritter.”  
He grabs the hem of Laurel’s shirt and pulls it over her head. Once he throws her shirt off the bed, he goes back to kissing down her neck and chest. “Gareth,” Laurel moans as he gets closer to the band of her skirt.  
He slowly pulls it off of her and goes back to what he was doing. He can feel the muscles in her stomach tighten under his lips. He goes back up to her lips, grabbing the back of her neck with one hand and the other still on her waist. He picks her up, scooting her back to the headboard.  
His hand slides down from her waist to pull off her underwear, their lips never pulling apart. Once she’s fully undressed, he pulls away to take off his clothes.  
“Gareth, come back.” Laurel whines as he gets off the bed, to unbuckle his belt. “Hold on.” Once he’s down to his underwear, he crawls back into bed, under the covers with Laurel. 

Gareth holds Laurel’s back as he discovers a steady rhythm, he doesn’t stop kissing her. Her skin is so precious to him, that he never wants to stop kissing it. “Gareth, faster,” Laurel breathes out, pulling on his shoulder blades so that he is as close as possible.  
Gareth quickens his pace, as they both start to hit their limit, all Gareth can think about in that moment is her. He hasn’t stopped looking at her, her eyes are closed, really allowing him to take her. She’s the most beautiful and graceful woman he’s ever met. As they reach their highs, Laurel moans out his name. Gareth grunts, falling to her side.


	29. Christmas in Indiana Part 4

The next morning, Laurel wakes up alone. She grabs the throw blanket at the foot of the bed, that feels like a giant sweater, and wraps it over her naked body.   
She walks out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where Gareth is making breakfast. “Goodmorning sweetheart, do you want your eggs scrambled?” She walks up next to him, placing her head on his bicep, “That’s fine, how long have you been up?”   
“Only like 30 minutes, mom wants us back at the main house in an hour or so. Is that okay?” She nods before leaning up and placing a kiss on Gareth’s jaw. “Last night was nice, Gareth. Thank you.” He looks down at her and pecks her lips, “I thought you could use a night to ourselves after meeting my family.” 

As soon as Gareth and Laurel get to the main house, Cathy runs up to them, “Gareth, the guys need your help with the tree.” Gareth quickly kisses Laurel on the cheek, “I’ll come find you when I’m done. Please watch what you say.” Cathy giggles at that and Gareth heads to the family room.   
“So, what is it you need me to do?” Laurel asks Nora, walking into the kitchen. “If you could help me with the cookie baking, that would be wonderful.” Laurel shrugs off her coat and puts it on a chair before walking to the counter that Nora is standing at. “I don’t know anything about baking anything.”   
“Gareth told me. I’m gonna teach you how to bake his favorite Christmas cookies.” Laurel rolls her eyes at Gareth making sure his mother knew that Laurel doesn’t know how to bake. “He likes oatmeal raisin, right?” Nora nods her head and hands Laurel the recipe sheet. “This is the recipe I’ve been using since he was little. He used to sneak into the kitchen during Christmas time and climb up in a kitchen chair to get the cookies off the counter. When he was 5, he fell off the chair and broke his arm. But, that didn’t stop him from going back the next night and stealing some more.” Laurel laughs at the thought of baby Gareth, completely dead set on eating all the cookies he could. He really hasn’t changed too much, now that she thinks of it. 

When Gareth finds Laurel, the cookies are really starting to make the kitchen smell good, “Laurel Healy, are you baking?” He wraps his hands around her waist from behind, resting his head on her shoulder. “Yep, your favorites.”   
“Chocolate chip?” She spins around, quickly, “I thought it was oatmeal raisin, that’s what me and your mom made for you.” He presses his lips to hers, rubbing her lower back, “Relax, I’m joking. Is there any dough leftover?” She turns back around, grabbing a small bowl with dough in it, “You want some?” He goes to grab it from her, but she runs away from the counter, “Come and get it, Ritter.” She runs into the living room, through all of the people with Gareth close behind. “Laurel Healy, I swear to G-”   
“Gareth Michael Ritter, the next word better not be what I think it is.” Laurel stops behind Cathy, laughing at him getting in trouble. “Yeah, Gareth, watch your language.” He runs up to her and Cathy, “Laurel, come on, we are all adults here.” She scoops some of the dough onto her finger, licking it off, “Oh man, this is really good. Cathy, would you like some?” Cathy reaches around, taking a bit for herself, “You are really missing out, big bro.” Gareth rolls his eyes, putting his hands on his hips.   
“Uh oh, we are really in trouble now, he’s got his politician stance.” Laurel says, smiling at him innocently. Before Laurel can even blink, Gareth pushes Cathy out of the way and grabs Laurel by the waist, “Drop the dough and nobody gets hurt.” Laurel hands the bowl to Cathy. Gareth picks Laurel up, throwing her over his shoulder, “You’re gonna pay for this, you know that?”   
He throws her down on the couch next to Nora and Sam, before she can even protest, Gareth sits on her lap. “Gareth! Get off!” Laurel’s laughter makes it difficult for Gareth to take her seriously. “What’s the magic word?” Gareth coaxes, as Laurel struggles underneath of him.  
“Please!” He stands up and turns to face Laurel, who is struggling to sit up on the couch, “Only because you asked so nicely.” The timer for the cookies goes off in the kitchen, and Laurel jumps up to go to the kitchen, “Nora, can you help me?” 

 

“These cookies are amazing, Laurel.” Gareth kisses her temple, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Well, I try.” She picks up another cookie, “Want another one?” He jerks his head back as she tries putting it in his mouth, “No, I’m good.”   
“I’ve seen you eat twelve of these in one sitting, you eat one, and don’t want another?” He shrugs, “I just am not very hungry right now, you eat it.” She snarls her nose at him, “I don’t think so.”   
He takes it out of her hand, taking a bite. “Are you happy?” She pulls away from him, crossing her arms, “Eat the whole thing.” He pops the rest in his mouth, as she watches him eat it. “You hate them, don’t you?” She says, pouting.   
He wraps his arms around her waist, “No, no, I love them. Look, I’ll eat some more.” He grabs the plate of cookies, popping one after another into his mouth. He grabs his beer off the counter, washing them down. “See? I love your cookies, they’re very delicious.”   
“I don’t believe you,” she starts, “hey Cathy? Can you come in the kitchen?” Cathy walks in from the living room, “What’s up?” Laurel holds out the plate of cookies, “Try one, and tell me what you think. Be honest.” Cathy looks up at Gareth, who is trying not to look at either of them. She eats one bite and hands the rest of it to Gareth, “No, thank you, Gareth can have the rest.”   
“That’s what I thought, thank you.” Cathy walks back out of the kitchen, leaving Laurel and Gareth alone. “I knew they were terrible, just by looking at your face. You are awful at hiding it.” He pulls Laurel into a hug, her head on his chest. “I’m sorry, your cookies are terrible. I still love you though.” She takes a deep breath in, smelling his aftershave mixed with the Christmas tree smell. “Thank you, I love you too.” She looks up at him, placing a quick peck on his lips.

 

The next couple of days are a blur of tree decorating, cookie baking, done by the other girls in the cabin that aren’t Laurel, and cuddling up with Gareth by the fireplace, listening to stories about when he was younger.   
“So, did you really almost propose to Mary-Anne?” He nods, biting his lower lip, “Guilty.” He wraps the blanket around her tighter, “She came to Christmas with my family, because the year before we went to her family’s Christmas. I had the ring and everything all picked out. I was going to propose at Christmas Eve dinner.”   
“Why didn’t you? You could have five kids with her by now, living on a cute little cow farm.” He chuckles against her hair, before placing a kiss on the back of her head. “Because, she was too obsessed with getting married. She had all of our kids’ names picked out, her wedding dress and everything was basically set. It was insane. She kept telling everyone that if I proposed at Christmas, it would be perfect timing to lock in our venue for the summer.”   
“Aww, Gareth. You think you’re not obsessed with getting married?” He wraps his arms around her, “I wasn’t back then, but since I met you…” She turns around to face him, “So, are you gonna do something about it?” He smiles down at her, “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” 

 

The next day was Christmas Eve, they head out of their place and over to the main cabin. Laurel goes to talk to Cathy, while Gareth goes in search of his mom. “Mom, I need to talk to you about something.” He pulls her over to the dining room, where they’re alone.   
“What is it, honey? Is everything okay? You look terrified.” He rakes his hand over his face, “Where’s the present I had sent to the house for Laurel?” She thinks for a minute, “It should be with all the other gifts, they’re in a bag in mine and your father’s room.”   
“Thank you, very much.” Before he can run off, she grabs his arm, “Why, sweetheart?” He takes a deep breath. “I’m gonna propose to Laurel tomorrow morning, I needed to know where it was so I can hold onto it.” Nora has tears in her eyes, “Oh honey, that’s wonderful.” He leans down to hug his mother, “Momma, don’t cry.” He rubs her back as she settles down a bit, “I am just so glad you met her, she’s amazing.” He pulls away and looks down at his mom, “I know, she’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met.” 

 

“So, Laurel, do you miss being in DC for Christmas?” She plays around with her food on her plate, “I miss it a little, I’m just really used to dressing up every night and going to parties during the holidays. But, I love being here with Gareth.” He rests his hand on her leg before looking over at her, “You alright? He whispers, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little dizzy, and kinda tired.”   
She takes a couple bites of food, “You sure? You’ve barely eaten anything.”   
“Yeah, will you guys excuse me? I need some fresh air.” She quickly walks outside, sitting on the porch swing. 

“Hey, you okay?” She hears Gareth ask, opening the front door. She pops her head up, “Yeah, it’s just really stuffy in there.”   
“Well, it’s freezing out here, come back inside.” She takes a couple of deep breaths, “Gareth, will you come sit with me?” He walks over to the swing, sitting down next to Laurel. “What’s going on? You’ve been fine all week.” She pulls his arm around her waist and cuddles into his side, “There’s just so many people in your family, and it’s weird for me right now, I don’t know why.” 

“Do you want to FaceTime with Luke, so you can see Grace?” She nods as he pulls out his phone. “Here, we can call him, I know you didn’t want to miss seeing her this year.” He clicks on Luke’s name and hits the FaceTime button.   
The first thing they see is Grace, “Hi Gracie!” Laurel says in her baby voice, Luke pulls the phone away so they can see him now too. “Hey sis, hey Gareth. How are things going out in Indiana?” Laurel rests her head on Gareth’s shoulder, “I miss you guys.” She blurts out, not even really meaning to. “Laurel, are you okay?” She nods as Gareth puts the camera to his face, “She’s just overwhelmed with my family and everything.”   
After talking for a few minutes, Luke looks up, then back at them, “Hey, I gotta go, mom needs me for something and it’s Grace’s bedtime.” They say their goodbyes and Gareth rubs Laurel’s back, “It really is freezing, come inside and finish dinner. I’ll pour you a glass of wine.” He stands up, holding his hand out for Laurel.


	30. Christmas in Indiana Part 5

“Laurel, wake up.” Gareth gently shakes her until her eyes open. “Why are you shaking me?” He kisses her, gently, “Merry Christmas sweetheart.” She smiles up at him, “We should probably head over to the others to open gifts and eat.” 

“Is that all the gifts?” Nora asks, specifically pointing the question at Gareth. “Actually, I have one more for Laurel.” He stands up in front of her before kneeling down on one knee. “Gareth, what are you doing?”  
“Laurel Healy, will you marry me?” He opens the box, displaying the most beautiful ring Laurel had ever seen. “Are you serious?” She asks, smiling, “Yes, now will you give me an answer? I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

She takes his face in her hands, kissing him, “Yes, I will marry you.” He gets up off his knee, standing up with her. He pulls her into his arms, taking everything in. He looks up at her after a minute. “I love you so much.” He fumbles with the ring, once he realized that he still hadn’t put it on her. 

Everyone in the room starts cheering and congratulating them. “I think this calls for a bottle of wine.” Gareth’s uncle says, getting up and going into the kitchen. Nora walks over to them, tears in her eyes, “I’m so happy for you both.” She hugs Laurel and then Gareth, “I’m so proud of you, Gareth.” Gareth starts tearing up a bit himself, “I love you momma.” Sam also comes over to congratulate the two, talking to Laurel about how he can’t wait for her to be apart of the family. “You two will make the most beautiful grandchildren together, I can’t wait.” 

For the first time since Gareth proposed, Laurel wasn’t smiling. Her head shot up toward Gareth. “Dad, come on, that won’t be for quite some time.” He notices Laurel smile at him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to see my fiance.” 

He walks toward Laurel, grabbing her by the waist in a hug. “Hi,” she says, resting her head on his chest. “Hi, are you okay?” She looks up at him before placing a kiss on his jaw, “I’m great, actually. Just a lot to take in.”  
“Well, after breakfast, I convinced my mom to let the two of us hang out for a bit. I thought we could take a little walk on the hiking path behind the cabin.” He pecks her on the lips quickly, “Do I have the right clothes for that?”  
“Yeah, Cathy has a pair of boots you can wear since you don’t have any.” 

“Hey guys, come get breakfast.” Gareth’s uncle yells from the kitchen. “We’ll be right there!” Laurel leans up and kisses him again, “You know, my other gift to you is really boring compared to your gift to me.”  
“What is it?” She pulls away from him, grabbing his hand to pull him to the kitchen with everyone else, “It is supposed to be a surprise.”  
“Why didn’t you give it to me when we opened presents this morning?” She rolls her eyes at him, “Gareth, it’s not something I can give you in front of your family, it isn’t a wrapped present.” 

Gareth finally gets what she’s saying, his jaw dropping. “I’ll still take it, Laurel.” They wind up in the kitchen, causing everyone’s heads to turn, “Take what, Gareth?” Nora asks as he realizes his whole family heard him. He gulps, “Umm, I’ll take the engagement ring to get resized, it’s a little big.” 

Laurel giggles at his terrible lie and sits down next to Cathy, leaving the other seat next to her open for Gareth. “The ring really is beautiful, Gareth, you did a great job.” His Aunt Carol speaks up. “Thanks, I had Laurel’s friend, Rochelle help me pick it out.”  
“Rochelle knew you were gonna propose?” Gareth puts his hand on her leg, “Yeah, so did Gustav and Luke, they helped me with the ring and stuff.”  
“I’m shocked Gustav never let it slip, to be honest.” Gareth and Laurel start laughing and everyone just stares at them. “Who’s Gustav and Rochelle?” Cathy asks, looking up at Gareth. “They’re just some friends of ours, you’ll probably meet them when you come to D.C. with us, monkey.” 

“Laurel, we need to meet your family. I’d love to talk to your parents about wedding stuff soon.” Gareth looks over at Laurel, rubbing her back, “Actually, it’s just my mom, my dad past away about a month and a half ago.”  
“Oh, Laurel, I had no idea. Gareth hadn’t told me.”  
“It’s okay. He was terminal so we all knew it was coming.” She reaches up and hugs Laurel, “Well, you two better get going on your hike before the snow picks up too much.” Laurel smiles at Nora before she and Gareth head out to the path. 

“Laurel, did you know, that Luke did not want me to propose to you?” Gareth states, matter-of-factly as Laurel jerks her head back, giving him a confused look. “Luke loves you, what do you mean?”  
“He said that he thought you didn’t want to get married, so he didn’t really think it was a good idea to propose in front of my whole family.” She stops walking, causing Gareth to stop as well. “Gareth, trust me, I didn’t just say yes because your whole family was there. You know that, right?” He wraps his arms around her waist, followed by her wrapping hers around his shoulders, “Of course, if you wanted to say no, you would’ve.” 

He kisses her for a minute, softly, but passionately. “What would you have done if I said no?” He looks up, like he’s thinking about it, “I would’ve burst into tears and ran away in pure embarrassment, and then you would’ve had to explain to my entire family why you hate me.”  
Laurel smiles up at him, trying not to laugh, “You’re so dramatic.” He leans down to kiss her again, “And you’re not?” She playfully slaps his bicep, “Asshole.”  
“We should head back, it’s starting to snow again.” 

“Laurel, you look absolutely adorable in those pictures Gareth sent us, from your trip to New York. What were you guys there for?” Gareth’s Aunt Carol asks. “I actually had my documentary in a festival up there, so Gareth came with me.”  
“What was the documentary about?” Gareth lets out a quiet laugh, with Laurel giving him an unpleasant look before looking back at his aunt, “Melanesian choirs.”  
“Ohh, that sounds...lovely.” She can tell the woman had no idea what she was talking about, so Laurel started to explain herself, “They’re disappearing, nobody in the Solomon Islands wants to sing their native music anymore, I want that to stay.” 

“I didn’t take you for the traditional type.” Gareth’s Uncle John says. “I just think their music is beautiful and shouldn’t be let go so easily.” Gareth grabs her hand that is resting on her leg, “I agree, these choirs are amazing and should continue on.”  
“I just think it’s ironic that a democrat is getting upset over something disappearing.” Laurel squeezes Gareth’s hand, clearly getting angry. “Well, I think it’s kinda hilarious that a republican is judging me for who I am. Because that never happens, does it?” Laurel says, stating the last part a bit more sarcastically. 

“Laurel, stop it.” Gareth whispers, gritting his teeth. “I’ll stop when he does.” Laurel raises her voice, getting up off the couch and walking into the dining room to cool off. She can hear Gareth in the other room, “Why are you being like this? I thought you liked her, she’s my fiancee now, Jesus fucking Christ.” He stomps out of the living room, “Gareth Michael Ritter! Language!”  
“I don’t care, mom!” He yells walking into the dining room where Laurel is. 

“Laurel, are you alright?” He wraps a hand around Laurel’s waist, “Gareth, I’m fine. Just a little heated.”  
“Let’s get out of here, I know something way better we could be doing.” Gareth says, leaning into her neck. “No, I’m not gonna keep running away when your uncle says something rude.” He pulls away from her and she grabs his hand, pulling him back into the living room. 

Nobody says anything for a few minutes, but all of a sudden, Uncle John speaks up, “Gareth, I don’t think you should marry her.” Gareth stands up, as Laurel grabs his hand. Nora rests her hand on Laurel’s shoulder comfortingly. “What the hell are you talking about?”  
“Gareth, she has no morals or values, is that really who you want to be the mother of your children? Spending the rest of your life with you?” Laurel feels Gareth tense up, “Gareth, honey, sit down.” He pulls her up off the couch and wraps an arm around her waist, “Laurel, we are leaving. Get your coat and head out to the car.”  
“Gareth, please stay, we all want to get to know Laurel better.” Nora speaks up, “Mom, I love you, and I’m glad you opened your arms to Laurel and love her as much as I do, but I’m not dealing with this shit right now.” 

Gareth heads to get his coat, “Gareth Ritter, it’s Christmas and you are staying in this house.” Laurel can hear Cathy slowly start to panic a bit. “Cathy come with me.” She takes Cathy’s hand, leading her to the kitchen. 

“Everything is alright, let me get you some water.” She grabs a glass, filling it with water before handing it to Cathy. “You okay?” She nods, taking a sip. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just hate it when Gareth gets angry, especially over something like this. Uncle John is being ridiculous, I’m sorry.”  
“I’m okay, just relax, alright?” Cathy wraps her arms around Laurel’s shoulders, Laurel rubbing her back, “We should head back in there, Gareth is probably about to explode.” Laurel agrees and her and Cathy head back to the living room. 

“Laurel, come on sweetheart, we are leaving.” She knows he’s talking to her, but his eyes are on his uncle. “Gareth, baby, calm down.”  
“I am calm! Now let’s go, I need you to stand with me on this, Laurel.” Laurel hugs Cathy again before hugging everyone else goodbye. “We’ll see you guys later, thanks for a great morning.” Laurel says, putting on her coat, following Gareth out the door.

“Laurel, why are we even still discussing this?” She gets up off the couch, “Gareth, you’re obviously not thinking clearly, just shut up and think about what you just said to me.” He grabs her arm before she can walk away, “Laurel, I have thought about it, if my uncle doesn’t want us to get married, we will elope.”  
“Your parents would hate it. Your entire family would hate it, we aren’t eloping.” He pulls her back down to his lap. “But I love you, and if my family doesn’t, then we will get married without them. Except maybe Cathy, she loves you like you’re her sister.”  
“And I love her the same, which is why I want her to be my maid of honor at the wedding that we are having.” He moves his head from her shoulder to look at her, “Wait, are you serious? You’re gonna make her maid of honor?”  
“Of course, why wouldn’t I? I love Cathy.” He squeezes her in a hug from behind, “I love you so much.” Gareth says, through gritted teeth. “Alright, alright, calm down, you need to cool off, don’t let your uncle ruin today.” 

“So, are you ready to head back to the main house?” Laurel asks, running her index finger down Gareth’s bare back. “No, I want to stay here with you.” She chuckles, leaning down to kiss him on the nose, “We have to go back at some point, we left all of our presents.”  
Gareth lets out a loud groan, “I knew I was forgetting something, however, at least we have the most important present.” He picks up Laurel’s left hand where her ring is, but when he looks at it, the ring isn’t there. “Where’s the ring?”  
Laurel looks down at her finger, “I don’t know, I could’ve sworn I was wearing it this whole time.” She then remembers what happened at the house, “Wait, I forgot I took it off to wash my hands, and I guess I must’ve left it on the counter, I’m not used to it.” 

“Have you guys seen my engagement ring? I left it on the counter earlier when I washed my hands.” Laurel asks as she walks through the front doors. “No, we haven’t seen it sweetheart. Are you sure you left it here?”  
“I’m positive, I washed my hands after Gareth and I got back from our walk and it was on the kitchen counter.” Gareth walks through the doors after they’ve been looking for it for a few minutes. “Hey Laurel, I might know where the ring is.” She walks over to him, placing her hand on his chest, she can feel his heart speeding up.  
“Sweetheart, relax, where is it?” He pulls away from her walking to where his uncle is sitting on the couch. “Where’s Laurel’s engagement ring, Uncle John?” Laurel grabs him by the arm, pulling him back to her. “Gareth, stop it, I’m sure he doesn’t have it.” His uncle stands up, looking Gareth in the eye, “I don’t have the ring, Gareth.” Laurel throws her hand up, “See? He doesn’t have it, now help me look. It could’ve fallen down the drain.” Gareth pulls his arm away from Laurel again, “No, he has it, he’s lying.” 

“Gareth, he doesn’t have it. Now, help us look in the kitchen, your dad is looking under the sink.” Gareth gets closer to his uncle, never having broken eye contact, “Give me the ring, John.”  
“Gareth, you need to be with someone who better suits you.” John says, very calmly. “I don’t give a fuck if you don’t want me to marry Laurel, it’s happening, whether you like it or not. I’ll buy another goddamn ring if I have to.” Laurel grabs his hand, rubbing her thumb along the top of his knuckles, “Gareth, let’s go look for it.” He yanks his arm from Laurel’s grip before swinging a punch at his uncle. 

“Gareth! Stop it!” Now, his entire family is flooding back into the room, John swings at Gareth, hitting him right in the nose and part of his mouth, so he’s bleeding everywhere. “Gareth, stop it!” Laurel looks around at his family, Cathy is in the corner, her hands over her ears, sobbing. “Cathy, go upstairs. Laurel, please take her up there for me.” Nora looks at her with pleading eyes. “Of course, come on Cathy, everything is okay.” She wraps her arm around Cathy’s shoulders, she can feel her shaking. 

“Just breathe for me, okay?” Laurel grabs a washcloth, getting it a bit wet before patting it along Cathy’s neck, “Is that better?” Cathy just nods before falling into Laurel, shaking and sobbing. Laurel rubs her back calmly, “It’s okay, everything is going to be fine, I promise.”  
“You and Gareth are gonna leave soon, aren’t you?” She asks, sounding almost like she’s accusing them of something. “We probably will, but you can still come with us to D.C. for the rest of the week if you’d like.” She shakes her head, “Not if Gareth is gonna keep getting angry like that.”  
“Cathy, are you afraid of him right now?” She nods slightly, “I just want him to stop.” She pulls Cathy into her arms, rocking her gently, “I’ll go talk to him, you stay up here, okay? Just lie down and relax.” 

“Gareth, you look awful.” Laurel states, walking into the kitchen where Gareth is sitting on the counter, a bloody lip, nose and slight bruising already forming on his brow bone. “Gee, right before the beauty pageant too.” He says sarcastically, “Gareth, this is serious, Cathy is terrified.” She says, grabbing the washcloth to clean him up.  
He winces as she tries cleaning up the blood around his nose, “Your nose might be broken, Gare.” She finishes cleaning up his lip and she can see a tear falling down his face. 

“I didn’t mean to hit him, Laurel, I wasn’t planning on this happening.” She hears his voice crack a bit and it breaks her heart. “I know you didn’t, but you need to talk to Cathy, she’s afraid of you, Gareth. She doesn’t want to come back with us anymore.”  
He jumps off the counter, clearly a little too quick because he grabs his head, about to fall over. “Gareth, sit down.” Laurel grabs his arm, trying to lead him to a chair, “No, I need to talk to Cathy.” 

“Cathy, I’m so so sorry, I didn’t want any of that to happen.” She backs away from him a bit as he tries to hug her. “Please don’t be afraid of me, you’re the last person I need to not want me.” She looks up at him, still shaking and crying a bit. “Why’d you hit John?”  
“I honestly don’t know. Please forgive me, I’m so sorry.” She gets up, wrapping her arms around his chest tightly. He squeezes her tight, afraid she’ll let go. “Thank you, Cathy. I love you sis.” 

“I love you, Gareth. Can I still go with you and Laurel back to D.C.?” He pulls away from the hug, “Of course you can, we are leaving on the 27th. Well, now it might be tomorrow morning.” He says, laughing nervously. Laurel walks up to the doorway, “Cathy, are you still going with us for New Years?” She nods as Gareth wraps his arm around Cathy’s shoulders, “Are you gonna be alright, Cathy?” She hugs him from the side, and he places a quick kiss on the top of her head.  
“Good, I’m gonna go back to mine and Laurel’s cabin so I can clean up.” Laurel extends her arm for him to take her hand. “I’ll help you, you look awful. Should we go to the hospital to get a splint for your nose?” He nods, putting his index finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, “It’s killing me.” 

“Well, now that your nose is broken, I don’t really want to marry you.” He wraps his hands around her waist from the back, resting his head on her shoulder, “Aww, come on, you don’t love me anymore?”  
“Nope, but, I do want to talk to you about what happened today. Go, sit on the couch.” He obeys and sadly walks over to the couch. “I don’t want to talk about it, I want you to let me hold you and kiss you.”  
“Not with that nose.” She sits next to him on the couch, where he’s lying down. 

“Gareth, this is serious. You and your uncle need to fix this issue you’re having.” He grabs her arm, pulling her to lie down with him. “Laurel, he hates you, so I want nothing to do with him until he opens his mind to the idea of you. That’s final.”  
“Fine, but, I’m not wedding planning until you both apologize to each other.” He pulls her closer to him, “Laurel, you know that’s just gonna piss off my mom more than anyone.”  
“You’re right. No sex until this is figured out, and you can sleep on the couch tonight.” He lets out a groan, almost yelling. “Laurel, come on. I thought I was getting my present tonight.”  
“Not anymore.” 

“John, I want to apologize for earlier. I shouldn’t have hit you, it was immature and stupid.” He holds out a hand for his uncle to shake. “I’m sorry too, Gareth, but I really didn’t have Laurel’s ring.” 

“Laurel, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so awful to you.” She reaches up to hug him, “That’s alright, I’m used to it. Nothing I can’t handle.” 

“Alright, everyone, dinner time!” Nora exclaims, clapping her hands. Gareth takes Laurel’s hand, leading her into the dining room. “Nora, this is beautiful.” She says, in awe of the dining table. “Thank you, Laurel, I wanted your help with it, but you had to take Gareth to the ER.” 

“This has been an amazing Christmas, thank you all so much for allowing me to be here with you.” Laurel raises her champagne glass, “I just want to say that I’m glad to be apart of this family. It’s a lot different than when I was growing up.” 

Gareth rubs her knee, looking up at her, “I love you, sweetheart.” He kisses her cheek, uncomfortably with the splint. “I love you too, baby.”  
“I want to propose a toast to the newly engaged couple, may you have a long and happy life together. We love you both so much and are so happy for you.” Sam says, raising a glass. “Thanks dad, hopefully we find the ring before we have to leave.” Everyone laughs at this, as they all dig in to start dinner.


	31. Christmas in Indiana Part 6

Gareth loads the car up as Laurel is saying goodbye to the family. “I hate to take Cathy away from you guys, but I think she’s too excited to come with us for me to change my mind.” Nora smiles as Cathy climbs in the backseat. “Thank you for being so amazing to her, she always wanted a sister.” 

“So, Cathy, we have a party at the offices on New Year’s Eve that you can go to with us, if you’d like. Just please don’t fall in love with a democratic icon, it never works out.” Laurel slaps Gareth’s arm, “I have a guy I can set you up with for the night, you’ll really like him. He’s a moderate, so you don’t have to talk about politics at all.”   
Cathy smiles at Laurel, “Thanks Lo, I would love that.” Gareth looks over at Laurel, wide-eyed, “You’re setting my little sister up? What the hell? Do I know this guy?”   
“Yes, it’s Alex and I invited him over to watch a movie with us.” Gareth rolls his eyes and slumps in the driver’s seat. “Perk up Gareth, we will watch whatever movie you want.” 

 

“Cathy, this is Alex, he is a filmmaker. He was my assistant a few months back.” Alex shakes Cathy’s hand as Gareth wraps his arm around Laurel’s waist, staring Alex down. “How are you, Gareth? It’s been a while.” 

He shakes Alex’s hand, a little too firmly, “I forgot how strong of a handshake you’ve got.” Gareth nods, with a fake smile, “I’m a politician, remember?” Laurel smacks him on the head, he looks at her, rubbing the back of his head, “Oh, I’m sorry, did that hurt?” 

“How’d you break your nose, that looks painful.” Laurel speaks up before Gareth can say anything stupid, “His uncle punched him in the face for being a dick. Just like how I’m about to, would you excuse us for a second? You guys go on and make yourselves comfortable and put in the movie.” 

“Gareth, Cathy is really nervous already for this, you’re making it worse, now stop.” He hugs her, placing kisses on her neck, “I’m sorry. Get the popcorn and I’ll get the drinks.” 

Gareth gets into the living room before Laurel, he squishes into the spot that’s barely empty in between Alex and Cathy. “I hope this is okay, wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable, Alex.”

Alex awkwardly scoots away a bit, “No, it’s all good, this is your place.” Cathy just rolls her eyes before Laurel walks in, “Gareth, up.” He looks back at her, “What? I wanted to sit next to Alex.” 

“You’re squishing Alex, come on, sit on the other couch with me.” He gets up, sighing. “Laurel, come on.” She grabs his arm to pull him down on the couch, “You’re sitting with me.” He sits back against the armrest of the couch, pulling Laurel in between his legs, holding her from the back. “Cathy, do you want any popcorn?” Laurel hands Alex the bowl, “You guys can have that bowl, Gareth and I will share another one.” 

“Thanks Laurel.” Cathy smiles at Alex as she goes to grab a piece of popcorn, “So, Alex, you don’t work for Laurel anymore, what do you do?” Laurel jabs him in the rib with her elbow, “Gareth, we are watching a movie, shut up.” He settles back comfortably on the couch, pulling Laurel closer, letting out an angry breath in her hair. 

By the time the movie is over, Laurel has fallen asleep on Gareth, and Cathy has fallen asleep on Alex’s shoulder. Alex wakes Cathy up gently trying to move her before Gareth can see them. “Well Alex-” he stops, looking over his shoulder to see Cathy snuggled into Alex’s shoulder, “what the hell?” This, wakes up Laurel, who is not in the mood for Gareth right now. 

“Gareth, go get ready for bed, and leave the poor kid alone.” He stands up, hovering over Alex, “Watch yourself, kid, don’t touch my sister.”   
“Gareth, get out of here!” Laurel yells, as she can see Cathy tensing up. “Cathy, it’s okay. I’m not afraid of your brother, he just doesn’t want you to get hurt.” Alex says, rubbing Cathy’s forearm. Laurel smiles at him, she didn’t tell him about Cathy being autistic, so it’s sweet of him to be like this. 

“Alex, would you like to come to dinner with us before the New Year’s Eve party? We have a reservation for 6:00, I told them four people, because at the time, Rochelle and Gustav were coming. But, since they can’t, would you like to?” Cathy looks up at him, wide-eyed. “If Cathy wants me to, then yeah.” She nods, slowly, not wanting to seem too eager. “Then, I’d love to come.” 

Before Alex leaves, Laurel grabs him to talk in the hallway. “Hey, I didn’t tell you before, because I didn’t know how you’d be about this. But, Cathy is autistic, that’s why she might get a little more anxious and scared at times.” Alex smiles at Laurel, completely unfazed by this, “Did you think I’d shun her for being autistic? She’s really sweet and I want to go to the party with her.” 

“Thank you, Alex. And, I’m sorry about Gareth, he’s an asshole.” He shrugs it off, “No worries, if I had a little sister, I’d be the same way.” She hugs him goodbye before walking back into the apartment. 

“Gareth, you need to apologize to Alex at dinner on Thursday.” He walks out of the bathroom connected to their room, “What do you mean? He was all over Cathy, I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have.” She gets into bed, Gareth kneeling next to her by the pillows, “Her head was on his shoulder, she was asleep, he was watching the movie. He wasn’t all over her. You’re gonna apologize.” He rolls his eyes, settling back against the pillows with his arms crossed, “Stop pouting, it’s not cute.” He sticks his bottom lip out at Laurel, “I don’t want my sister dating him.” 

“You don’t even know him, Gareth.” He takes in a deep breath, “I know that he is gonna run away when he finds out she has autism, guys always do.” They both look up as Cathy walks in their room. “Gareth, I’m fine, he’s a good guy. Stop tormenting everyone I like.” 

“Plus, he was really sweet to Cathy when you freaked her out by saying ‘don’t touch my sister,’ so you can shut up.” Gareth looks at Laurel, then at Cathy, “Come here, monkey.” She walks over to his side of the bed, with the same pouty look he was wearing just a few moments ago. 

“I’m sorry, I just don’t want you to get hurt again. It always happens and it’s because men are disgusting assholes.” Laurel laughs out loud, Gareth turns to look at her, “Sorry, it was just ironic cause you’re a disgusting asshole, not because you’re a guy, it’s just who you are.” 

Cathy giggles at that, while Gareth remains unamused. “Listen, Cathy, I love you and don’t want you to fall for this guy, just for him to break your heart by leaving.”   
“Gareth, that’s not going to happen, he knows she has autism, he still wants to go out with her. I talked to him ten minutes ago. He really likes Cathy.” Gareth, still looking at Cathy, grabs her arms, pulling them around him to hug her. 

“Just please, be yourself. I don’t want you to pretend to be okay, even though you might not be.”   
“Gareth, I know, and Alex is really sweet and calm. I’ll be okay.” She pulls away from Gareth, before going to hug Laurel. “Thank you, Laurel.” She pulls away, heading to their door, “I’m gonna go to bed, goodnight guys, love you.” Gareth and Laurel repeat it back before settling back into bed. 

At about 3 in the morning, Laurel wakes up to a noise in the guest room. She looks over to see Gareth out of bed. “Gareth?” When he doesn’t respond, she gets up and runs out to the guest room. “Cathy? Gareth?” She walks into the guest room, seeing Gareth trying to coax Cathy out of the corner. She’s sitting on the floor with her hands over her ears. 

“Come on monkey, it’s just me, you’re okay.” He turns to see Laurel, “Laurel, get me a glass of water and a wet washcloth. And your phone.” She runs out to the kitchen, then her room, grabbing everything he asked for. 

“Here, why do you need my phone?” He walks over to Cathy with the wet washcloth and glass of water, putting the water on the nightstand, he places the washcloth on the back of Cathy’s neck, trying to calm her down. “Put on some music, calm music.” Laurel turns on her editing music, since it’s just instrumentals. 

“Cathy, just relax, it’s just me and Laurel. Do you need anything?” She shakes her head, vigorously. “Cathy, talk to me, do you need anything?” She stutters a bit, “N-n-n-no.” He kisses the top of her head, before looking back up at Laurel. “Hold her hand, she likes being around you.” Laurel kneels down on the ground next to Gareth, grabbing Cathy’s hand. 

“Hey Cathy, how are you feeling?” She says, calmly. She’s been around Cathy during her states of panic before, but not this bad. Cathy doesn’t respond, just looks blankly at her, “Cathy, try talking for me. Use your words.” Gareth says, once again. 

“F-f-fine.” He looks up at Laurel, “Hand me that glass of water.” She grabs it, handing it to him. “Here monkey, take a sip of water.” He puts the glass to her lips as she takes very small sips. “Can you try talking for me?” He hands the glass back to Laurel, Cathy just looks at him, tears forming in her eyes as her breathing calms down. He rubs her back soothingly, “Come on Cathy, talk to me, it can be about anything you want.” 

Laurel jumps in when Cathy still hasn’t said anything, “Cathy, did you like meeting Alex, tonight?” Cathy looks over to her, a smile forming on her lips, “Y-yeah, I d-did.” Gareth can feel her calming down, so he leans over to grab Cathy’s shoulders, pulling him closer to her. “G-Gareth?” He looks down at her in his arms, “I’m, I’m s-sorry.” He rests his cheek on Cathy’s forehead, “Don’t apologize, monkey, I’m sorry. I was a jerk to Alex, nothing was your fault.” 

“Cathy, do you want to lie back down?” She nods at Laurel, as she and Gareth help her off the floor. Gareth picks her up, laying her back down in bed, “There you go, do you need another blanket or pillow?” He asks, as Laurel goes to turn her music off. “No, I’m okay.” She settles into the pillow, as Gareth kneels next to the bed, playing with her hair. 

“Gareth, should I get her a different pillow case? I don’t want her to be uncomfortable with one covered in sweat.” He shakes his head, standing up next to her, “No, she’s alright, I don’t want to wake her up.” Laurel nods and leads Gareth back to bed. 

“How long before I got in there were you…?” Laurel asks as Gareth pulls her closer, into his chest. “Not long, maybe about 30 minutes.” Laurel turns so she is facing Gareth, “Is she okay? I don’t want her being here to be a problem for her.” 

“I don’t think it’s because she was here, I think it was because of a bad dream. When I went in there, I saw her on her bed, tossing and turning. She sounded like she was about to scream, so I woke her up, but as soon as she was awake, she ran straight out of bed and into the corner of the room.” Laurel pushes a strand of hair from his face, “You okay?” He nods, pulling her into him, “It just scared me, she hasn’t been that bad in a long time.” 

“Luke called earlier, would it be okay if he and Grace came over here tomorrow?” He nods, “What time? I have to go to the office till noon tomorrow,” He looks over at the clock, “I might as well not even go to sleep, now.”   
“He’s coming at 11, so they’ll be here when you get home.” His head falls back on the pillows, “Okay, I’m going to sleep until I have to go to work, I love you.” She smiles at him, rubbing her hand across his chest, “I love you too.”


	32. Christmas in Indiana Part 7

Luke knocks on Laurel’s door at exactly 11, she opens the door, grabs Grace and closes it again before Luke can even blink. “Laurel, open the door, she’s my baby, not yours.” She opens the door, and hugs him before taking Grace into the living room. “Luke, this is Cathy, Gareth’s little sister. She’s staying here for a few days for New Year’s Eve.” 

Cathy shakes his hand before turning to Laurel, “This is your brother?” Laurel nods, “And your future brother-in-law.” Laurel sits down with Grace in her lap, “Wait, you said yes to Gareth?” She nods slowly, smiling, “Yeah, and I heard you told him not to propose.” 

“I like the guy, I didn’t want you to hurt him.” Cathy giggles from the chair on the other side of the room. “So, Cathy, what do you do?” Luke asks, sitting down next to Laurel on the side of the couch closest to Cathy. “I’m trying to graduate college, so I don’t really have a job.” 

“Well, what do you want to do?” She looks over to Laurel, clearly stressed, “It’s okay, Cathy, just relax.” Luke looks over at Laurel, “What did I do?” Laurel shakes her head, “Nothing, it’s okay.” 

“I want to go into politics, like Gareth. But, not so much as him, I’m not really that republican. I’m more of a moderate.” Luke nods approvingly, “That is great, Cathy. What exactly do you want to do in politics?” 

“I know that Laurel was your constituent caseworker, I want to do something like that.” Before Luke can respond, Gareth walks through the door. “Hey, Luke, how are you doing?” Cathy runs up to Gareth at the door, hugging him tightly. “Hey, monkey, you okay?” He looks over at Laurel, “She’s just a little anxious today, she has been all morning.” 

“Here, I’m gonna go change my clothes really quick, so how about you sit with Laurel and relax a bit, okay?” Laurel hands Grace back to Luke as Cathy sits next to her, resting her head on Laurel’s shoulder. Luke looks back to Laurel, mouthing, ‘Is she okay?’ Laurel nods, rubbing Cathy’s shoulders. 

“Okay, now that I’m done with work for the day, hand me that beautiful child of yours, Luke.” Gareth walks around the couch, taking Grace from Luke. “Hi Gracie!” He sits on the floor laying Grace on her back, “I missed you!” He says in his baby voice, he kisses her on the forehead as she giggles at him. “So, Luke, how’s New York?” Gareth asks, still playing with Grace. “It’s great, we miss D.C., but I love it up there.” 

“That’s good. We are planning another trip up there in May for a festival Laurel was invited to.” Luke looks over at Laurel, “I didn’t know that.” She nods as Cathy gets down on the floor where Gareth and Grace are. “Do you wanna hold her, Cathy?” Luke asks. “Yeah, can I?” 

“Of course you can.” Gareth picks Grace up off the floor, handing her off to Cathy. “Here you go. Luke, she has gotten so much cuter.” Gareth says, looking at the baby in Cathy’s arms, “Thank you, I pride myself on my child.” 

“Luke, how would you like for us to watch Grace for a little bit? You go and hang out with your old friends.” Laurel says, cleaning up their dishes off the counter, “Are you sure? I mean, Cathy is here and I don’t want her to feel left out because of Grace.” 

“It’ll be fine, she loves Gracie, and Gareth really wants to play with her more, he loves having her here.” Luke smiles at Laurel, “Did he bring up babies while you were in Indiana?” Laurel rolls her eyes, “A little bit.” 

“Grace, you get to hang out with me for a little while!” Gareth says in his baby voice, again. She giggles at him, grabbing his lips with her tiny hand. He puts her on his lap, tickling her, “Gareth, try not to turn my baby against me.” Luke says, opening the door, “I’ll try my best to turn her conservative.” Luke rolls his eyes before walking out the door. 

“Laurel, can you bring me Grace’s bag of toys? And a blanket for her to lay on?” He picks Grace up, resting her on his chest. “You are the cuddliest baby in the world.” Laurel walks in with Grace’s blanket, “It’s her naptime, so you can nap with her since you didn’t get much sleep last night. Cathy went to take a nap a few minutes ago too.” He stands up with Grace still on his chest, Laurel looks at the baby, she has her thumb in her mouth, struggling to keep her eyes open. Gareth takes the blanket, laying it over Grace. “Come on baby, let’s go take a nap.” 

“They look so cute, Laurel. I hate to wake them up.” Laurel looks at Gareth and Grace napping on the bed, “Me too, but I need Gareth to cook me and Cathy dinner. And Grace isn't staying here tonight.” She goes over to the bed, next to Gareth. 

“Gareth, wake up. I'm hungry.” He sits up, looking at Laurel, “Oh shit, how long have I been asleep?” She brushes the hair on his forehead with her fingers. “Just a few hours, it's okay, Grace has been asleep the whole time, thank god.” He picks the baby up, getting out of bed, handing her to Luke as she wakes up. 

Gareth finishes cooking up dinner, as Laurel is pouring three glasses of wine while Cathy sets the table. “Cathy, did you tell Gareth your news?” She shakes her head, “You have news?” She looks up at him, “Umm, yeah, Alex called and asked me to go out with him for brunch tomorrow morning.”   
“That’s great…” He brings the food over to the table, “I'm really happy for you sis.” They all sit down to eat, making small talk and just relaxing. 

The next day around 4, Gareth is pacing the apartment as Laurel is trying to watch tv. “Honey, please sit down, I can’t see what’s on Netflix.” He stops pacing and looks at Laurel, “Are you serious? They should’ve been back here an hour and a half ago.” 

“Maybe they decided to take a walk after brunch, or take a visit to the planetarium.” She gives him a smirk at that last part. He throws his hands up, pulling them through his hair, “That’s just great, my kid sister is about to get finger blasted in a planetarium.” 

“Gareth, I highly doubt that is actually gonna happen, she’s not like us. She’s much more innocent.” He plops down on the chair and looks up at Laurel, “I don’t trust him.” She gets off the couch, walking over to him, sitting on his lap. 

“Listen, I know Alex, he’s a good guy. Just give them a little bit.” His hand goes to her waist, “I just, I’m worried about her.” She runs her fingers through his hair, “I know you are, just relax. I can help you with that.”  
He lets out a long sigh, still agitated, “How could you possibly do that?” She rolls her eyes at his cluelessness, “Come into the bedroom Gareth, I’ll show you.” He throws his hands up as she gets off his lap, “What are we gonna do in there?” He looks up at her, genuinely still confused. 

“Never mind, you sit here, wallow in self pity a little more. I’m gonna go pour myself a glass of wine.” He grabs her hip as she tries walking past, “Laurel, what is it?” All of a sudden, her phone goes off. “Hold on.” She sees that it’s Alex calling her, “It’s Alex.” 

Gareth jumps up out of the chair, “Hey Alex, how’s the date going?” She asks calmly, right after she finishes, her face falls. Gareth looks up at her, terrified. “Alright, we will be right there, just try and move her in a private place.” 

“What’s going on, Laurel?” He puts his coat on, walking out the door behind Laurel. “They're at the Washington Monument. She's freaking out, he didn't say why.”  
“Fuck, I'm driving, get in.” He says going over to the driver’s side. “I don't think so, you're way too excitable. I'm driving.” He gives in and walks to the passenger side. 

“Alex, what happened?” Laurel and Gareth run up to him as he's kneeling on the ground with Cathy, trying to calm her down. Gareth pulls Cathy into his chest, rocking her calmly. “It's okay monkey, I'm here. You're okay.” 

“We were just taking a walk around the monument and she grabbed my hand, so we were just holding hands, nothing too serious. Then she stopped and was just looking around and all of a sudden she started breathing heavily, like panting.” Laurel rests a hand on his shoulder, seeing that he's clearly a little freaked out. 

“It's okay, thank you for calling me.” She kneels down with Gareth and Cathy, Alex following suit. “Cathy can you try talking to me?” Gareth asks sweetly. “Y-yes.” He rubs her shoulders, “Good. Do you want to go back to the apartment?” She nods, reaching for Alex’s hand, he rubs his thumb over her knuckles. Gareth looks at the exchange with an angry expression. 

“Alright, lets go back.” They help her up and Gareth helps her walk back to the car, where she sits in the back with Alex holding her.   
Laurel notices Gareth tense up and takes one hand off the steering wheel, grabbing his hand. 

“Hey, Cathy, are you feeling better?” Gareth asked, opening the guest room door holding a mug of hot cocoa. “Yeah, is Alex still here?” He nods, handing her the mug, “I wanted to come talk to you before he came in here.” She looks up at him confused as he sits on the edge of the bed. 

“I want to tell you, if you like Alex, I’m okay with that. He’s a good guy and he was there for you today when I couldn’t be. I just hate that you’re growing up.” She smiles at him, before grabbing his hand, “I’m always gonna be your little sister, Gareth. I was thinking I would look for apartments here in D.C. for after I graduate.” Gareth snaps his head up, “Really? Do you need my help? Have you talked to mom and dad yet?” 

“No, and I don’t want you talking to them until I do, got it?” He nods, “I’m just happy for you. I love you sis.” He leans over, hugging her, “I love you too, Gareth.”   
“Is it cool if I come in?” Gareth turns to see Alex in the doorway, “Yeah, I’ll just head on out and start dinner. Are you gonna eat with us, Alex?” He shakes his head, “No, I gotta wake up early for work tomorrow.” 

Gareth leaves them in the guest room for a bit of privacy and goes out to where Laurel is in the living room. “How is she?” He sits down on the couch, resting his back against her, “Well, a lot more chipper once Alex went back there.” He says, bitterly. “Aww, come on, she likes him a lot.” 

“I know, but she’s my kid sister.” Laurel rubs his chest with one hand, and grabbed one of his hands with the other. “Wanna go out tonight? Just the two of us?” He leans his head back in the crook of her neck, “I don’t wanna leave Cathy alone.” 

“What about Alex?” He shakes his head, “He said he had to get back home.” Laurel kisses him on the temple, “I’ll go talk to him, we need to go out.” Gareth picks up her left hand, looking where the engagement ring should be, “We need to go get you a new ring.” 

Laurel nods, before she can say anything, Alex and Cathy walk out of the bedroom, holding hands. “So, Gareth, I changed my mind about dinner. But, can I take Cathy out instead?” Gareth tries to get up off the couch, but Laurel pulls him back down. “That’s perfect, Alex, we have some errands to run and are gonna go to dinner ourselves. You guys have fun.” Laurel says, making sure Gareth can’t say anything. 

“Do you want the same ring? I can get you a better one, if you’d prefer.” He says, not even looking at Laurel, instead searching the rings. “I like the one you got me, but…” He looks up at her, before wrapping his hands around her waist. “If you want a different one, that’s fine. Any one you want, I will buy.” 

“Well, I don’t want you spending more money than you originally did, though.” He chuckles, looking her in the eyes, “Money isn’t an issue, sweetheart, pick out any ring. I’m not telling you how much I spent the first time.” She rolls her eyes, “Gareth, seriously, it’s not worth all of that.” He tightens his grip on her waist, “You’re worth all of it.” She scrunches up her nose before giving him a quick peck. “Cheesy.”

After they put in an order for the new ring, they head to dinner at their favorite restaurant. “So, how do you think Cathy and Alex are going right now?” Laurel asks, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. “I don’t want to think about that right now.” He dismisses the entire conversation, before it even starts. “Gareth, come on, admit that you like Alex.” 

“He’s not a terrible person, Laurel. That’s all I’m saying about that.” She rolls her eyes and looks back at the menu. “Laurel, I just don’t like talking about my sister’s love life.” She closes the menu, looking back to him. “How do you think she felt when you would talk about me? And when you asked her to set up that room in the cabin for us?” 

“I’m sure she felt weird about it too.” She shakes her head, frustrated, “Gareth, she loves hearing you talk about me and us. She loves you so much that she wants to hear all about how happy you are.” He puts his head in his hands, “I’ve spent my whole life making sure she’s okay, and safe and not getting hurt by some asshole who just wants to take advantage of her.” 

Laurel extends her hand across the table, “He's not like that. Just trust me that I chose a good guy for her. I chose you, didn't I? I must have pretty okay taste.” He takes her hand, chuckling, “You're right, I'm sorry. So, I wanted to talk to you about something.” She looks at him, intrigued, “I want to get married soon, like a few months, soon.”  
She jumps a bit, surprised at this, “I umm, I guess we can do that. I don't know anything about wedding planning. But, if you really want, we can start after the new year.” 

“Really? Because, I thought you’d say no and want to wait at least a year before we even start planning. But both of our jobs are calm right now, and it’s perfect timing for a spring in Indiana wedding-” Gareth babbles on and on, and Laurel let’s him till that last part. “Did you say Indiana wedding?” 

He nods slowly, “Yeah, should I not have said that?” The waiter comes up to the table to take their order, so Laurel has to wait before saying anything. Once he leaves, Laurel prepares herself with a couple sips of her old fashioned. “Gareth, I’m not getting married in the island of misfit conservatives.” 

“Laurel, please-” She cuts him off again, “No, since I’ve been forced to fall in love and actually be engaged to someone, thanks to the universe, I’m getting married in D.C., where I grew up.” Gareth, getting irritated, looks up at Laurel and takes a deep breath. “You didn’t even want to get married in the first place. Why can’t we get married where I want to?” 

“Because, haven’t you ever heard of a wedding being the bride’s big day?” He decides to twist her liberal values against her, “What happened to equality for men and women?” She rolls her eyes at him and sips some more of her drink.   
“Why the fuck did I say yes to your marriage proposal?” He rolls his eyes back at her, and grabs his old fashioned taking a large drink, “I don’t know, you tell me.” 

By the time dinner is over, all Laurel wants is to go home and shower and go to bed. Gareth tries starting up a new conversation on their way home, but Laurel isn’t having it. When they walk in the apartment, Cathy is sitting on the couch watching Netflix, “Hey guys, how was your date night?” 

Laurel sets her bag down, and slumps down onto the couch, “Great,” she says angrily, “just great.” Gareth puts his coat on the hall table and walks through the living room, ignoring Cathy and Laurel and going straight to the kitchen. He grabs a beer out of the fridge and goes to sit on the couch next to Laurel. 

She stands up before he can even get situated and walks toward their bedroom. “Laurel, stop being so easily agitated!” Cathy turns to Gareth, before looking at Laurel. “You stop being so controlling and so... old fashioned!”   
“Says the woman who wants to get married in D.C. because it’s ‘the bride’s big day’.” He says putting air quotes around what Laurel said at the restaurant. “Maybe that’s because I don’t want to get married surrounded by people telling me that ‘the best feeling in the world is holding your newborn child in your arms’. I’m sick of it!” Gareth stands up to face the direction of Laurel, “That’s my family, Laurel!” 

“Then stick up for me! You know how I feel about having kids, you know me! Tell them to stop, I stand up for you against my family when I need to. You need to do the same.” Cathy is completely focused on getting out of the room at this point, but doesn’t know if there will ever be a good chance. “I got a broken nose sticking up for you!” 

“After a week of telling me to watch what I say around your family, why is it so hard for you to just let me be me?” At this point, Laurel has tears in her eyes and Gareth is just tired of fighting. Cathy speaks up before Gareth can say anything, “You guys are ridiculous! Stop fighting over the stupidest shit!” 

Gareth turns to Cathy, completely shocked, “Cathy, you don’t even know why we are arguing, stay out of it.” Laurel walks back to the couch, “Leave her alone, she’s just tired of hearing the same argument over and over again, because you can’t listen to me.” 

“Stop fighting! Both of you! Whatever got you so pissed, is probably the dumbest thing and doesn’t matter! Now, I just had a great night with a great guy and neither of you can get your heads out of your asses long enough to let me enjoy the rest of my night.” Laurel and Gareth lock eyes and then look at Cathy. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry monkey. How was your date with Alex?” She smiles at Gareth, and then at Laurel, “He’s amazing, he’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met. Thank you Laurel for setting me up with him.” She walks over to Laurel giving her a hug. “I’m gonna go to bed and if I hear any arguing, I’m gonna go stay with Alex.” 

Gareth straightens when she says this, “Like hell you are.” Laurel looks over at him, “She can do what she wants, she’s an adult.” He throws his hands up, “It’s a good thing you don’t want to be a mom because you probably shouldn’t be one, you’d let them run around doing whatever-” he stops, realizing what he just said. 

“Gareth, stop it!” Cathy yells at him, as Laurel walks away to their room. “Laurel, I didn’t mean to-” She turns around, holding a hand up to stop him. “You can sleep on the couch tonight, do not come to our room unless there’s an emergency.” She turns and goes to her room to go to bed. 

A couple of hours later, Laurel hears the door creak open and sees Gareth walk in. She ignores him, pretending she’s asleep. “Laurel? Are you up?” She still doesn’t move. He sits on the bed on his side, taking off his shoes. 

“Laurel, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said that to you, I’m such an ass. I know you’re not asleep, because anytime we get in a fight, you don’t sleep because you know I’ll come apologize.” She wiggles a bit, not really moving, “Laurel, I’m so so sorry, that was the worst thing I could’ve said to you in that moment, and I just…” she can hear him getting choked up, “I love you so much, baby, just please forgive me.” 

She turns around to look at him, “You know I don’t want kids because I don’t have the maternal instincts most women have. It’s not just because I hate children, or don’t want kids with you. I cannot have a kid, and then have them grow up the way I did.” He scoots closer to her, he tries pulling her to him but she moves away. 

“Laurel, I’m so sorry. I think you’d make a great mother, I love watching you with Grace. You are completely capable.” She sits up on her elbows, staring up at him with pleading eyes, “Then why’d you say what you did? You wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t believe it, even a little.”

“Laurel, I was just upset over Cathy’s date and then you not wanting to get married in Indiana, and I just blurted something out. It’s not true, please, believe me.” She sits up and crawls over to his lap. “It really hurt, Gareth. You’ve never said anything like that to me before, and I didn’t think you believed that about me. The only people that have said those things to me are your family.” 

“I’m so sorry sweetheart, please don’t listen to them. They are so stupid, and don’t know you at all.” He holds her close, “That’s why when you said it, I got so upset, you usually see the parts of me nobody believes in, so why’d you say it?” 

“I honestly don’t know, because what I want more than anything is a family with you. I just want you to want the same thing.” She looks up at him, a little more calm now, “Will you come sleep in here again? I don’t like when the bed is empty.” 

He nods, grabbing her jaw to place a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be right back.” Gareth goes to get ready for bed, but first, he goes to let Cathy know that he and Laurel made up.


	33. Christmas in Indiana Part 8

New Year’s Eve day was a mess of getting Cathy a dress that she can wear for the party, and getting ready in time for their dinner reservations.   
“Gareth, I need my dress!” Laurel yells out from the bathroom, “Then come get it, I’m trying to fix my hair.” She cracks the door open, “I’m naked, bring it to me.” He looks over at her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. 

“Now you really have to come get it yourself.” She rolls her eyes, “No, bring it to me, I’m freezing.” He sets his gel down and goes to their closet to grab her dress. “This dress looks familiar, have you worn it before?” 

He hands it to her, “No, it’s new. I ordered it online a couple weeks ago.” His eyes go wide and he turns around walking away from her, “What? Should I wear something else?” He goes back to doing his hair, “No, I just remembered where I saw that dress before.” 

“Where?” She still has the door cracked open, “Mary-Anne wore it once.” Without another word, Laurel throws the dress out the bathroom door. “Pick out a different one.”   
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t wear it, It’ll look nice.” He goes to pick the dress up before going back to the closet. “I don’t care if you like it, I hate it now.”   
“You'd look a thousand times better than her in it, though.” He hands her a different dress, “No, I'm not wearing it.” She sounds like a toddler throwing a fit, which causes Gareth to laugh at her. “It's not funny, Gareth. Get rid of the dress.” 

She walks out of the bathroom in the other dress he picked out, “Well, you still look amazing either way.” He says, walking over to her, wrapping his hands around her waist. “Thank you, you need to get dressed, we are gonna be late for our reservations.” He cranes his neck, placing kisses on her jawline. 

“Gareth, we gotta go, I need to get my shoes.” He moves from her jawline down her neck, sucking on her skin. “Gareth, I swear if there’s any marks on my neck…” He picks his head up, leaning into her ear, “Five minutes won’t hurt anything.” He buries his face into her neck, placing light kisses where he can feel her heart beating. Her pulse quickening as his hands go from her waist, searching her body, coming to rest on her ass. 

“Gareth, Cathy is waiting to leave.” He pulls away from her neck, giving up. “We will be finishing this after the party.” She rolls her eyes and goes to grab her shoes out of the closet. “Where’s your tie?” Laurel asks, realizing he wasn’t wearing one. “I thought I’d go without one tonight.” 

Laurel shakes her head, grabbing a bowtie from his collection of a million ties. “You’re not gonna go without it.” He laughs as she pops his collar, wrapping it around his neck. “Why do you like when I wear ties so much?” She ties it around his neck, before pulling his collar back down. “Because, I like pulling them off of you later.” She kisses his nose and walks out of the room. 

By 11:30, Gareth was getting frustrated, Laurel had been talking to everyone else in the party, leaving Gareth at the bar to be tortured by the way her curves flow in her dress. He gets up, walking toward her and Senator Grant, the republican senator from Nebraska. 

“I just don’t understand why that is even coming into question. Nobody should have the ability to control what a woman does with her own body.” He sits back for a moment, admiring how amazing his fiancee is. “Ah, Gareth, good to see you again.” He’s snapped out of his thoughts by Senator Grant. Gareth extends his hand, giving the senator a firm handshake. “It’s good to see you too, I hope you’re not giving Laurel too much grief.” 

“To be honest, she’s really handing it back to me.” Gareth’s arm goes around Laurel’s waist, “That’s my girl.” Laurel smiles at them awkwardly, “Laurel, I bet you’re thrilled to have Gareth running for senate next year.” She looks at Gareth, pretending to be excited, even though she just found out about. “I’m absolutely ecstatic, he’s working extremely hard on his policy for abortion, no doubt. We’ve been talking a lot about it, isn’t that right, Gare?” 

“Yep, that’s right honey.” Gareth says through gritted teeth, “Oh really? And what progress have you made on it? I know in the past you’ve been very pro-life.” Gareth looks up at Laurel, “Well, I believe that women deserve the right to choose what happens with their bodies, and do what is best for their child.” 

Laurel tries not to laugh at how uncomfortable he looks saying that. “But what if what is best for the child involves adoption instead of murdering an innocent fetus?” Gareth tightens his grip on Laurel, preparing for what she’s about to say. “Well, what about the woman? What if she was raped-oh wait, I forgot, you said that rape is the woman’s fault. What if it was your daughter? She’s what, 14? What if a man saw her walking out of school on her way home, followed her, pushed her up against a brick wall and molested her-” 

Gareth leans into her, “Laurel, relax.” The senator just stares at her, blankly, “Laurel, can I speak to you privately for a moment?” Gareth pushes her out into the hallway and towards the janitor’s closet. “Gareth, I was just trying to put it into perspective for the man.” He opens the closet and pulls her inside. 

“Laurel, I’m running for senate this year, please don’t do something that is going to piss off anyone I can use in the future.” She crosses her arms, “You know I only did that to get you to pull me away.” 

He pulls her close to him, tight, he begins kissing her feverishly. He backs her into the door, locking it as she wraps her legs around his waist. “Gareth, it’s almost midnight, people are gonna come looking for us.” 

“Shit, can we go to a hotel tonight instead of going home?” Laurel nods, placing a small kiss on his lips, “Let’s go back out there,” Gareth checks his watch, “It’s 5 minutes till midnight.” 

As the countdown begins, Gareth grabs Laurel in his arms, “I love you, Laurel Healy.” She presses her forehead against his, “I love you, Gareth Ritter.”   
“5...4...3...2...1…” Gareth dips Laurel down, kissing her softly, but with more passion than she can describe. “Happy new year, almost-Laurel Ritter.” He picks her back up, “I need you, let’s get out here.” 

Gareth hovers over Laurel, running his hands up her sides. “You’re so beautiful.” He breathes into her ear. She grabs his neck, pulling his lips to the spot behind her ear, which he knows drives her crazy. 

“Gareth…” Laurel breathes out. He continues sucking on the spot behind her ear, thoroughly enjoying himself. “God, I love you.”   
Laurel’s hands find themselves tangled in his hair, he trails kisses down her neck and onto her chest, running his hands up to her shoulders.   
“I need you, Laurel.” 

“Did you love her after you broke up?” Laurel asks, running her hand down his bare chest. “Did I love who after we broke up?” 

“Mary-Anne.” He looks down at her before repositioning himself sitting up. “Laurel, why would you ask that?” She shrugs, allowing him to pull her into his chest. “I will always care for her, she was my first everything, and my only for a long time. But ultimately, I knew I couldn’t be with her.” 

“I can tell by the way that you look at her, you still have feelings for her.” He sits up completely, causing Laurel to sit up as well. He grabs her shoulders, “Laurel, those feelings might still be there, but you’re the one I asked to marry me, not her.” 

“I know, I know.” He pulls her into his lap, pulling the sheet up onto her to cover her up. “I’ve only got eyes for you, you liberal piece of shit.” She laughs, looking up at him, “And I’ve only got eyes for you, conservative asshole.” 

“Cathy, we’re home!” Gareth yells, walking into their apartment, he and Laurel still in last night’s formal attire. “I’m headed out, my flight leaves in a couple hours.” Laurel sets her clutch down on the table in the front hallway, “Oh, let us get changed and then we will drive you to the airport.” Gareth says, rushing toward the bedroom.   
Cathy grabs his arm, stopping him, “Oh, Alex is picking me up to take me. He wants to see me off.” 

“Oh, okay, then I guess just call me when you land.” He wraps her in a tight hug, afraid to let her go. “Thanks for everything guys, it means a lot.” She hugs Laurel before heading out the door where Alex is waiting for her downstairs. 

“She didn’t want me to drive her to the airport.” Gareth pouts, falling onto the couch. “She would much rather hang out with her new boyfriend than her brother, Gareth, trust me.” She sits next to him on the couch, he plops his head down on her lap as she plays with his hair. 

He throws his face into her stomach and lets out a sigh. “I don’t feel good. Help me feel better.” They continue on their January 1st in bed, only getting up to get another bottle of wine, or by 9 that night, for Gareth to make dinner because he had to go to work the next day.


	34. Laurel Forgets The Pill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a prompt from a friend of mine, who is also here on AO3, her username is elizabethvaughan, so go check her and her cowriter out!

Gareth gets home from work around 10 o’clock, completely exhausted. “Hey Gare, what’s wrong?” He flops down onto the couch as Laurel walks over, sitting down next to him. She pulls her legs up under her and runs her hand up and down his chest in a soothing manner. 

He closes his eyes, completely relaxing. His hand finds it’s way to her leg, staying on her upper thigh. “I feel like I’m forgetting something.” Laurel says, thinking about the last few hours. 

“What?” Gareth asks, groggily. “I feel like I am forgetting to do something.” He shrugs, pulling her over to him, her head resting on his chest. “Laurel, I need you tonight.” Laurel stands up, grabbing his hand to pull him to the bedroom. 

“Mmm, good morning.” Gareth stretches as Laurel repositions herself so that she’s lying next to him and not on top of him. He grabs her face, placing a quick peck on her lips. “I gotta get ready for work.” 

“Shit!” Laurel screams, as she locks her phone. She just realized that what she forgot to do the day before was take her birth control. She grabs her keys and heads to the drugstore. 

“Can I help you find something today, miss?” A cashier at the drugstore asks, as she sees a frazzled Laurel running through the aisles. “I’m looking for the morning after pills.” The woman leads her to where they are and hands them to her. Laurel heads out and takes a few in the car. 

“Hey, can I see Gareth?” Laurel stumbles into the office. “One moment, I will see if he’s busy.” After a minute, Gareth opens the door to see Laurel in a chair in the waiting room, with her head in her hands. 

“Hey baby, what are you doing here?” She stands up, falling into his arms, as he leads her into his office. “Gareth, I’m so sorry.” He sits her down on the couch, noticing that she’s shaking a bit. “Laurel, are you alright? What happened?” 

“I forgot to take my birth control yesterday…” He rubs her back soothingly, “And?” She looks up at him, “So, I took a bunch of morning after pills today.” 

“Laurel, you can’t do that, it’s not safe.” He says, a little too aggressively. “I’m sorry, I just panicked and didn’t know what else to do.” 

“It’s okay, we just need to get you home.” As he says that, her hand falls to her stomach. “I don’t feel good.” He runs and grabs the trash can next to her desk, rushing it over to her. “Here, get it out of your system.” 

“Gareth, take me home.” She leans against him with her head on his shoulder, completely weak. He holds her up while he gets off the couch to help her up. 

“Fran, screen my calls, I need to take Laurel home. I’ll be back in the morning.” He holds her up by her waist and leads her out of the offices, hailing a cab. 

 

“Laurel, you need to get it out of your system, come on.” She’s completely delirious and Gareth knows she won’t want to go to the hospital, if he tried. “I’m gonna call Rochelle, okay? How many did you take?” 

“I don’t know, I took a few of them. The bottle is in my purse.” He goes to grab it to see how many she took. “Laurel, you took half of them?” She’s now half falling off the couch, Gareth runs over to her, grabbing his phone to call Rochelle. 

“Laurel, I need you to sit up for me baby.” She groans and pushes against his chest, falling back onto the couch. “Come on baby, Rochelle is on her way here, I need you to stay awake.” He pulls her up and leans her against him on the couch.   
“Come on, Laurel, stay awake.” 

Rochelle bursts in through the door, “Gareth, what happened?” She rushes over to them, kneeling down in front of Laurel. “She took a bunch of pills, because she was worried about forgetting her birth control yesterday.” 

Rochelle can tell by his voice that he’s terrified. “Alright, Gareth, just calm down. We need to get her in the bathroom, she needs to get it all out of her system.” He picks Laurel up and they head to the bathroom in their bedroom. 

Rochelle hands him a small bottle of liquid. “Here, she needs to take just a sip of this.” He takes the bottle and holds it up to Laurel’s lips, “Here baby, take a sip. Just one sip for me, okay?” 

Laurel closes her eyes and lets him pour it into her mouth. “There you go, honey, thank you.” He kisses her forehead as Rochelle grabs a hair tie to pull her hair back. “Come on baby, let’s sit down okay?”

“That shit tasted awful Gareth. Why did I have to drink it?” He sits with her on the floor, Rochelle kneeling in front of them. “Because we need to get those pills out of your system, Laurel. You’re gonna be fine.” He places a kiss on the top of her head. 

A few minutes later, Laurel was wrapped around the toilet, puking up everything in her body. Gareth sat cross-legged on the floor, rubbing her back and placing small kisses to her back and shoulder. 

“Gareth, I want to lie down.” He scoops her up and carries her into the bedroom. “Rochelle, can you go get her some water?” Gareth sits next to her on the bed, “How are you feeling?” 

“Clearer, but I just want to go to sleep, I don’t want to talk about this right now.” Gareth pulls the covers up over her more. “Okay, get some rest. I’m gonna go talk to Rochelle and then see if work needs me.” He kisses her on the forehead and goes into the kitchen. 

“Why would she have done something like that?” Rochelle asks, handing Gareth a beer out of the fridge. “Because she’s terrified to have kids, so even the thought of possibly getting pregnant, scared the shit out of her.” 

“She told you that?” He shakes his head, taking a sip of his beer. “I know her, she gets crazy like that with stuff like this.” 

“Why is she pushing away the thought of kids so hard? She would make a great mom.” He throws his head in his hands, and takes another sip of his beer. “Because, she was never taught how to be around kids when she was growing up. Her parents were always arguing and cheating on each other, so she doesn’t want us to end up like them.” 

“Jesus Christ, I should probably head back to the hospital, and Laurel is gonna need you when she wakes up. I’ll see you later.” They stand up at the kitchen table and Gareth leans down to hug Rochelle, “Thank you so much.” 

“Hey baby, how you feeling?” Gareth asks, pushing a strand of hair out of Laurel’s face. “I feel like I could sleep for years, I can’t move.” He grabs the glass of water off the nightstand, handing it to her. “Here, you need to drink lots of water, does your head hurt? Rochelle said it could start bothering you.” 

“It just feels like a lot of pressure in my head, it’s not too bad, though.” He crawls over her to lie down next to her on the bed. He pulls her close to him, feeling how exhausted and weak her body is. 

“Let’s just lay like this for the rest of the day.” Laurel says, putting her head into Gareth’s chest. “You need to eat something at some point.” She groans loudly against his shirt. “I can’t even look at food right now.” 

“You need to eat, I’ll make you some chicken soup. It won’t be too much on you, okay?” He places a kiss on the top of her head. “Fine, if you’re gonna make me the food.” 

“Laurel, we really need to talk about what happened today.” She quickly starts eating her soup, avoiding the conversation completely. “I don’t know what you’re referring to.” 

“You trying to overdose this morning, that’s what I’m referring to. Goddamnit, Laurel, stop avoiding conversation just because you don’t want to talk.” Gareth says, almost yelling at her. “I just don’t feel like there’s anything to discuss.” 

“You don’t?” She shakes her head, “Nope, nothing to talk about.” He rolls his eyes at her, looking down at the bowl of soup in his lap, before quietly speaking up. “Laurel, please explain to me why you are so afraid to have children.” 

“I’m not afraid to have kids, I just don’t want them.” He chuckles at her, mockingly. “Yeah, we both know you’re afraid, Laurel. Now explain to me why. Is it because of me?” 

“No, it’s not because of you. Are you accusing me of something? Because I feel like I’m being interrogated.” He moves his bowl to the nightstand as she does the same. 

“I just want you to know, that I 100% want kids with you, more than anything. I want that with you.” She looks up at him, she looks like a mixture of terror and anxiety. “I don’t want my kids to end up living the life I had.” 

He pulls her into his arms, rubbing circles on her back. “They won’t, I would never be with anyone that isn’t you. I love you, Laurel, nobody else. Just relax, and let yourself live.” 

“What if you stop loving me one day? You could suddenly realize that you deserve better than some ridiculous, dramatic liberal who would rather make films than watch a presidential debate with you.” She starts sobbing into his chest as he rocks her back and forth, trying his best to soothe her. 

“Laurel, that isn’t going to happen. Look at how far we’ve come, do you really think if I didn’t love you, even a little bit, I would’ve believed in that bug stuff?” She starts relaxing a bit more, sitting up to look at him. “Just take some deep breaths, okay?” He rubs her shoulders, helping her breathe a bit easier. 

“How do you know that it won’t happen?” He kisses her nose, lightly, “Because I know that you never would’ve easily moved in with any other guy, so you must love me a lot, and I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life.”   
“I love you, Gareth.”   
“I love you so much, Laurel.”


	35. Gareth Ritter: The Ultimate Dad

Gareth had been at the mall for a long 4 hours before he burst through the apartment door with five bags on each arm. “Do you need help, Gareth?” Laurel asks, watching him struggle from the couch. “No, you sit there and relax, I’ll get everything.” 

He runs back out to the car to get about 6 more bags, before finally closing the door and moving the bags to sit in the living room. “Wanna see what I bought?” Laurel giggles at him, as he sits down on the floor behind all of the bags. 

“I got you some books on everything you need to know about being pregnant, along with some new pillows, and blankets to make sure you’re always comfortable.”   
He pulls out some stuff out of the bags, piling them next to him. “I also got myself some books, on everything I need to know about you being pregnant.” He shows her three books written for first time dads. 

“And I got you some new sweatpants and hoodies, cause I know that when you don’t feel good you like to be extra cozy, and when you start having morning sickness they will come in handy.” She gets off the couch and sits down in front of him and all of his bags. 

“Gareth, you’re crazy.” He grabs a giant bag from a baby store, and starts taking everything out. “I got some baby clothes and blankets and some toys, also.” 

“Did you get clothes for boys and girls?” He nods, “We don’t know what it is yet, so I figured, better safe than sorry.” She gets up to move to his lap. “Let’s just relax for a second, okay? I just found out I’m pregnant two weeks ago. I told you one week ago. I then told you I was okay with it, yesterday.” He looks at her confused, “Yeah, and you’re 8 weeks along, which according to every blog I’ve read, we are behind.” 

“You’ve been reading blogs?” He nods at her, “Gareth, you’re ridiculous.” He reaches behind him, grabbing a small bag, “I also got you something else.” She reaches into the tiny black bag and pulls out a small jewelry box, that looks like a box for a bracelet. 

She opens the box and inside is a charm bracelet, containing two charms, one is a ring, and the other is a baby bottle. “I wanted to get you something you could add to for every adventure we take together, I can get you more charms, but the two I thought of were our marriage and the baby.”

“I love it, Gareth, I really do.” She grabs his face in her hands and kisses him. “So, you forgive me for going overboard?” She nods, as her eye catches a couple of unopened bags. “What’s in those?” 

“Just some clothes I picked up for myself.” He’s obviously avoiding being asked more questions, so she grabs the bags herself. “What kind of clothes?” She pulls out of them; two sweaters, three short sleeve polos, and some cargo shorts. 

“What the hell are these? Nobody wears cargo shorts anymore, sweetheart.” He looks up at her, a look of defense on his face. “My dad does.” 

“Are you serious?” She asks him seriously, understanding what he did. “Just because you’re gonna be a dad, doesn’t mean you have to dress like one, Gareth. You’re still in your 30’s not 50’s.” 

“Laurel, don’t make fun of me.” Gareth says, completely serious. “I’m not making fun of you, I’m trying to help you realize that you are an idiot.”   
“I’m not an idiot, I just thought I needed some new clothes, that’s all.” 

“Gareth, that would mean like a new suit, not cargo shorts and polo shirts. I’ll go online tonight with you and we will buy some new clothes. But, you are returning all of the clothes you bought yourself today.” Gareth rolls his eyes, but agrees. 

“Fine, but I have work tomorrow, how am I supposed to go return this stuff?” Laurel gets up off the floor, extending an arm to help Gareth up. “I’ll take it back while you’re at the office.” 

He wraps his arms around her waist, leaning in to kiss her on the nose. “But we can keep the baby stuff?” He sounds like a child begging his mom to keep a stray puppy. 

“Yes, we can keep the baby stuff.” He smiles at her, one of his hands slides from her waist to her stomach. “I can’t believe you’re pregnant.” He locks eyes with Laurel before kneeling down in front of her, placing a soft kiss on her abdomen. 

“Well believe it, because in a few months, you’re gonna be on full dad duty.” He looks up at her, standing up straight, “What do you mean?” He asks, guiding her over to the couch to sit. 

“I’m gonna be very pregnant, hormonal, achy, it’s gonna be terrible. You are gonna have to take care of me.” She says, matter-of-factly.   
He rubs the small of her back, not taking his eyes off of her. “That doesn’t sound too bad. I like taking care of you.”

 

“Are you okay?” Gareth asks Laurel as she sits up on the bed. “Yeah, I just feel really nauseous. Will you get me a glass of water?” He jumps out of bed and runs into the kitchen. 

When he comes back, he can hear Laurel in the bathroom, puking. He stands in the doorway, glass of water in hand. “You alright?” She nods, extending an arm to ask him to help her up. 

“I just want to lie down.” He follows her into the bedroom, grabbing the blankets off the end of the bed to cover her up once she’s lying down. “It’s a good thing I went shopping yesterday, isn’t it?”   
Laurel rolls her eyes at him as she tries to go back to sleep, and Gareth heads to get ready for work.


	36. "Can I hold your hand?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I found a bunch of dialogue prompts and am going to do some of them and post them. So I hope you enjoy this one, it's really simple and kinda cheesy! This one takes place around episode 8, with a little bit of an AU, sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what happened to the format because I fixed it, but AO3, needs to fix their formatting.

Gareth and Laurel had been seeing each other for a few weeks, not out in the open, but Gareth would go to Laurel’s place almost every night for dinner and to hang out. Amongst doing other things.  
One morning, Gareth found himself in Laurel’s office. “Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” He asked, as he walked into her office, not realizing she was in a meeting. “I’ll come get you in the waiting room when I’m done, Mr. Ritter.”  
He nods at her, noting the fact that she called him Mr. Ritter. She only did that if she was in a really important meeting, or with her dad. 

Out in the waiting room, Gareth realized how weird some people really are. He looked around, noticing how most of the people are older. Laurel’s door opening snapped him out of his thoughts.  
“Mr. Ritter, you’re next.” He gets up, silently thanking god that he’s out of the waiting room now. He follows her into her office, as soon as the door is closed, he grabs her by the waist burying his head into her neck.  
He softly kisses down her collarbone, “Gareth, stop, I only have a few minutes. There’s too many constituents today.” He can hear the stress and exhaustion in her voice, and it’s only 9 in the morning.  
“Hey, is everything okay?” He tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Yeah, it’s just that these people are insane, and I can’t help them. And I still have two and a half hours till lunch.”  
“Do you want me to take you out for lunch?” She gives him a small peck on the lips, “As much as I’d love that, I have to go to lunch with my dad and Luke and Ella. Dinner tonight, though, at your place? Mine is a mess.” He nods, leaning in to kiss her again.  
“Sounds good, I’ll come pick you up here around 6, and we can walk over there together.” He goes in for another kiss before heading out the door. 

At about 5:45 Gareth started his way down to Laurel’s office. When he got there, she was sitting at her laptop with her microphone out on her desk. He opened the door quietly, listening to what voiceover she was adding to her Melanesian Choir documentary.  
Once she finished, she looked up, just now realizing that he was in there. “Hey, ready to go?” He asked, as she put her mic back in the drawer.  
“Yeah, let me just let Luke know that I’m leaving.” She gets up and walks over to Luke’s office really quick.

“Okay, let’s go. I need a drink.” He stops as they are walking out of the office, “I don’t actually have any drinks at my place right now, so we will have to pick something up on the way there.” He starts walking with Laurel at his side again, until they get outside.  
Halfway to the store, Gareth’s hand ends up on the small of Laurel’s back. “Hey Laurel, can I hold your hand?”  
Laurel giggles at his question, “Did you just ask if you could hold my hand? Are we in middle school?” He grabs her hand, intertwining their fingers.  
“I just didn’t know what we were, or what you were comfortable with me doing. We haven’t really established a label for us.” She looks over at him, giving him a half smile, “Do you really want to have this conversation right now?”  
“Can we talk during dinner?” She stops them, and looks up, pecking him on the lips. “That’s fine, what are you gonna make me for dinner?”  
“I was thinking, I would make you some chicken pad thai, with rice and noodles. I went to the grocery yesterday and thought you’d like that.” She grabs his bicep with the hand that he isn’t holding, “That sounds amazing.” 

“Will you hand me the chopped up pineapple that’s in the fridge?” Laurel gets up off the barstool and hands him the pineapple from the fridge. She pecks him on the cheek before going back over to where she was sitting at the island.  
“So, would you be willing to tell your family about us?” Laurel takes a sip of her wine and almost chokes on it. “My family? Like my parents?” He turns around, nodding at her. “I mean, and your brother, of course.”  
“I’ve already told my brother. There’s a reason my parents don’t know, Gareth.” He sighs, turning back to his cooking. “Laurel, I just don’t understand why they can’t know. My parents know about you.”  
She gets up and walks up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “That’s because your parents aren’t politicians and are actually accepting of you.” She kisses his shoulder as he finishes up their meal. 

“But, your mom can’t be that bad, right? Like, your dad probably is gonna hate me, but your mom has to be more level-headed.” Laurel drops her fork onto her plate, “Gareth, do you want to know how my mom would react?”  
He nods at her, setting his fork down. “My mom would take one look at you, and to your face, explain all the things I’m doing wrong by dating you. She hasn’t known about the last three guys I’ve dated because of that.” He gets up from his chair, and kneels down in front of Laurel, taking her hands in his.  
“I don’t care what your mom thinks, or what your dad thinks. I can prove them wrong, okay? I just don’t want to be a secret anymore, I’m so tired of it.” Laurel rubs his knuckles with her thumb.  
“Tell me what you want from me, Gareth.”  
"I want to come to your office, and kiss you without the door closed and the blinds shut. I want to hold your hand while we walk out of the office together at night or at lunch. I wanna take you out to lunch, anytime it’s possible. I want to be with you, I want you.”  
She leans down and kisses him, softly. “Okay, then let’s do that. I’ll set up a dinner with my parents for the four of us tomorrow night, is that okay?” Gareth takes her hand and places a kiss on the inside of her wrist.  
“That sounds perfect.” Laurel almost hates how relieved he sounds, she knows her parents won’t approve of him and that tomorrow will end in disaster. 

 

“Mom, dad, this is Gareth Ritter. He works for Senator Wheatus.” Laurel says, reluctantly, her hand on Gareth’s back. Gareth extends his hand to shake theirs.  
“Wheatus’s man? Really Laurel?” Dean asks. Gareth pulls his hand away, looking to Laurel’s mother. “Mrs. Healy, Laurel has told me so much about you.”  
She shakes Gareth’s hand, “Has she? Laurel doesn’t tend to talk me up to anyone, so I’m assuming it wasn’t great things.”  
“Oh, the opposite, she said that you are an incredibly strong and dedicated woman.” Gareth’s arm slides around Laurel’s waist. “Gareth, tone it down a bit.” Laurel whispers through a smile.

“So, Gareth, where are you from?” Liz asks, sipping on her wine. “I’m from northern Indiana.” Dean looks up at him, “How’d you get into politics?”  
“I always was interested in them in school, my parents wanted me to stay in my hometown, but the most I could do there was law, or maybe something in the mayor’s office.” Dean nods his head, “So, you want more recognition? Is that why you came to DC?”  
“No, sir, I came to DC to get more done. I felt like what I could do in North Judson was nothing compared to what I could get done here.” Laurel reached her hand over, placing it on Gareth’s thigh. He put his hand on top of hers, lacing their fingers together.  
“Do you plan to go higher up someday, Gareth?” Dean asks as their food arrives. “I hope so, I’d like to run for senate at some point.” 

After dinner, they continue on talking about Gareth and his family. “Well, we should probably get going, Gareth and I have to go into the office early tomorrow.” They say their goodbyes and Laurel and Gareth head back to Laurel’s place. 

“Do you think they liked me?” Gareth asks, taking off his slacks and climbing into bed, as Laurel walks out of the bathroom. “I think so, they didn’t say anything bad about you. At least not to your face.” Laurel climbs into bed next to him, pulling the covers up over her as she nestles into Gareth’s side.  
“Laurel, I’m serious, do you think they like me? Based on how they acted.” She runs her hand over his stomach, placing kisses on his chest. “I think they liked you, Gareth, now go to sleep. I’m exhausted.” He leans his head down and places a quick kiss on her lips, “Okay, goodnight.”


	37. Gareth and Laurel One Shots: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Come here, let me fix it." I know it's really short, but here you go.

“Shit!” Laurel hears after a loud crash in her kitchen. She sets her laptop on the coffee table and runs into where Gareth is making their dinner. 

“What happened?” Laurel asks, walking over to where he is currently holding his wrist. “The stupid pan burnt my wrist.” He looked up at her, close to tears. 

When she grabbed his arm, he winced. “I’m sorry, here, run it under the cold water.” She turned on the faucet and put his arm under it. “Just hold it there for a minute, I’m gonna go get something to bandage it.” 

“Laurel, it still hurts.” Gareth whines as Laurel tries going through her emails. “Gareth, you’re fine. I need to get this budgeting in line.” He flops his head down on her lap, causing her to have to move her laptop. 

“Gareth! I’m really trying to get this done!” He closes her laptop and sets it on the floor before sprawling out across her lap even more. She plays with his hair as he whines about his arm hurting. 

“Gareth, would you shut up?” He looks up at her, pouting. “But Laurel, it hurts.” He gets up and stands in front of her. “Come here, let me fix it.” He sits down next to her again and extends his arm out in front of her. 

She places a couple of soft kisses where the bandage is. “There, is that better?” He leans in and kisses her softly. “Much better. Now, come to bed with me. You need sleep.” 

She lets him drag her to their bedroom, which turns into her dragging him by the time they reach the door. “I don’t want to go to sleep just yet, though. I have a better idea.” She winks at him as she pulls him to the bed. 

He sits down on the edge before she can push him to lie down. She sits on the bed, straddling him, leaning down to kiss on his jaw and down his neck. She knows just how to make him feel better.


	38. Gareth and Laurel One Shots: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It looks good on you."

“Gareth, I am never wearing that, ever in my life.” Gareth held up his mother’s wedding dress that she had sent them for Laurel to try on. “Laurel, come on, my mom wants you to try it on.” 

“No, Gareth. I’m not wearing that for our wedding.” Gareth sighs, handing over the dress to her. “Laurel, it would mean a lot to her if you at least tried it on. If you hate it, just tell her.” She raises her eyebrows at him. “Tell your mother, that I hate her wedding dress?”

“I mean don’t say you hate it, but like tell her that you’d rather wear a dress of your own.” She rolls her eyes and goes to try it on in their bedroom. 

“I hate it, I look like the 70’s threw up on me.” Laurel says, walking out of the bedroom. Gareth chuckles at her, and walks up wrapping his arms around her waist. 

“It looks good on you.” He says, leaning in to kiss her. “It does not look good on me. I’m taking it off.” Gareth leans down even more to kiss her neck and jawline. “I can take it off for you.”  
“Gareth, this is your mother’s wedding dress. That’s disgusting.” She turns around so he can help her with the zipper. “Unzip, please. I need to get out of this.” 

“Okay, so if you won’t wear my mom’s dress, you’re going to have to go shopping for one.” Laurel throws herself down on the bed, “Gareth, can we talk about something else?”  
“Laurel, we’re getting married in four months. We haven’t done any planning.” She sits up and crawls to the edge of the bed, where Gareth is standing. 

“That’s what our moms are for. My mom is taking care of the big stuff, and yours is taking care of smaller details. We don’t have to do anything.” Gareth rolls his eyes and walks over to the desk in their room where his laptop sits, and takes a seat.  
“I really want to be apart of the planning of my wedding, though.” Laurel gets off the bed and walks over to where he’s sitting, taking a seat on his lap. He wraps his arms around her waist so that she doesn’t lose her balance, and places kisses on her shoulder.  
“Gareth, just call them and help them out, you don’t have to be completely cut off from it.” He rests his cheek on Laurel’s shoulder blade. 

“Laurel, I wanted to do it together. Some of the planning will actually require us. Like we are gonna have to make the registries, you have to choose your dress. Also, you have to help me find a tux.”  
“Why do I have to find a tux with you? Shouldn’t your mom go with you?” Gareth squeezes Laurel closer to him, holding her as tight as he can to where she’s not uncomfortable.  
“Because, you have to decide which tux you want to rip off of me on our wedding night.” Laurel turns in his grip, “That’s a crucial part of the wedding planning, huh?” He nods, closing his eyes and leaning in to kiss her. 

Gareth moans to deepen the kiss, as Laurel shifts so that she’s straddling him. His hands slide down to her butt, picking her up and carrying her to the bed.


	39. Laurel and Gareth One Shots: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Go back to sleep."

Laurel and Gareth had been home with their newborn daughter for 2 days now, and Laurel constantly just wants to sleep. When Jacqueline wakes up in the middle of the night, Gareth tries to go get her, but Laurel has to, to feed her. 

One night, after Laurel had fed her, Gareth walks into the nursery. “Hey, I wanna see my angel.” He walks up to where Laurel is standing, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. “God, she is beautiful.” 

Laurel looks up at him, smiling. “She looks just like you.” Gareth goes in front of Laurel, “Let me take her.” He takes her out of Laurel’s arms, Jackie nuzzling into his chest. “She’s gonna start thinking you’re me if you keep holding her without a shirt on.” 

“That’s insulting, Laurel. She knows the difference between her mom and her dad.” Laurel leans up and kisses him, “I’m just messing with you. She really loves you.” Gareth smiles down at his daughter in his arms. 

“She is absolutely perfect.” He then remembers something, as Laurel runs her hand down the back of Jackie’s head, “My parents are coming into town tomorrow. They get here around noon.” 

Laurel throws her head back, “Why? We just got home, I just want to relax without being told everything I’m doing wrong.” Gareth chuckles at her, “Go back to sleep, I’ll get her back to sleep.” 

 

“Laurel, come on, my parents will be here in a few minutes.” Laurel gets out of bed, carrying Jackie into the living room to the couch. 

“Why can’t we lay in bed? I’d rather be in there than on the couch.” Gareth kisses Laurel’s forehead, and then Jackie’s. “Because, our room is a mess, and if my mom sees it, she’ll have a cow.” 

Laurel’s jaw drops, in fake offense, “I’m sorry that our room is a mess. I’ve been a little busy, nursing your child and trying not to have a panic attack over the fact that I’m a mother now.” Gareth chuckles at her, and sits down next to her side with Jackie’s head. 

“Oh come on, we both know that I do most of the cleaning in the apartment.” Laurel rolls her eyes as they hear a knock on the door. 

“Get ready, cause you’re in for a treat when my mom sees Jackie.” Gareth says, before quickly placing a kiss on Laurel’s lips. He goes over to the door and opens it, barely enough for Nora to burst in, running over to the couch. 

“Oh my goodness gracious! Hand over my precious granddaughter.” Laurel peels Jackie off of her chest, handing her carefully to Nora. 

Gareth walks over to the couch with his dad and sister following. He sits down next to his mom, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he kisses her on the cheek. “It’s good to see you mom.” 

She turns to look at him, “Oh honey, it’s good to see you too, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t wait to hold her any longer.” Gareth chuckles and gets up to sit next to Laurel. “So, what’s her full name, again?” Nora asks, looking over to Laurel. 

“It’s Jacqueline Olivia Ritter.” Nora raises her eyebrows toward Gareth, “Jacqueline? Where’d that come from?” He looks to Laurel, for her to answer. 

“Jacqueline Kennedy. She was a strong, very empowering woman, and I believe it’s important to give my daughter a name that will help her feel empowered and proud to be a woman.” Gareth smiles up at Laurel, before looking to his mother. “That is beautiful, Laurel. And where did Olivia come from?”

Gareth speaks up this time, “I thought it was a cute name, so I chose that one.” Nora shifts Jackie in her arms, as Cathy walks over to the couch from the other chair in the room. “Can I hold her?” 

Gareth gets up, making room for Cathy to sit where he was. He takes Jackie from Nora’s arms and waits for Cathy to get comfortable. “Here you go, monkey.” He places the baby into Cathy’s arms, kneeling down next to the couch. 

“She looks just like you, Gareth.” Cathy says, looking down at him. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”


	40. Week after Inauguration

At about three in the morning, Laurel woke up to Gareth in the bathroom.  It sounded like he was puking, so she got up out of bed and walked over to the bathroom.  

Knocking on the door, she hears him scramble to flush the toilet.  “Gareth, honey, you okay?”  She opens the door, to find him sitting next to the toilet, face soaking wet with sweat or tears, she can’t figure out.  

She kneels down next to him, pushing his hair out of his face, “Hey, what’s wrong? You’re burning up, are you sick?”  He shakes his head, before leaning forward, resting his head on her shoulder.  

“No, I just had a really bad nightmare, and I had to get it out.”  Laurel rubs Gareth’s back, trying to relax him. “What was it about?”  Gareth pulls his head off of her shoulder, getting up off the floor.  

“It was about Cathy.”  Gareth goes over to the sink, washing his hands and face, and then brushing his teeth.  “What about Cathy?”  He turns around after putting his toothbrush down.  He wraps his arms around her waist pulling her close to him.  

“It was just assholes treating her like shit.”  Laurel rests her head on his chest, “Gareth's, that's the third time you've had a dream like that this week. What is going on?”  He places a kiss on the top of her head, “I don't know, but I want to see her. I miss her.”  

“Why doesn't she come to visit? We've got an extra room she can stay in.”  Gareth's pulls away, leading Laurel back into their bedroom.  “I don't want her here where people who watch Trump can be shitty to her.” Laurel sits on the bed, Gareth standing in front of her, “So, that's what this is about.”  

He raises an eyebrow at her, “What do you mean?”  Laurel grabs his hands, caressing his knuckles with her thumb, “Gareth, I know you don't like Trump. You can't keep that a secret from me. I know how much it bothers you the way he treats people with disabilities.”  

Gareth slumps onto the bed, positioning himself so that he can lay his head on Laurel’s lap.  “I just don’t want her to get hurt anymore, she doesn’t deserve that.  She can’t help any of it.”  Laurel runs her fingers through Gareth’s hair, in a comforting manner, “I know, I know how much it bothers you when she gets hurt.”  

“I’m gonna ask her to come visit for a few days.  I’ll take off work, and we can just hangout, the three of us for a little bit.”  Laurel shifts, making Gareth pick his head up.  “Good, then it’s settled, now can we please go to bed?  I have to meet Luke for breakfast tomorrow morning at 9.”  

Gareth repositions himself so he can lay down on his side of the bed, Laurel doing the same.  “Hey Laurel,” she turns to face him, as his arm wraps around her waist, “I love you.”  She smiles at him, leaning in to place a soft kiss on his nose, “I love you too, now go to sleep. You have work in the morning.”  

 

“Laurel, sweetheart, wake up.”  Gareth places a kiss on Laurel’s forehead, as her eyes open.  “I’m leaving for work, go take a shower so you can meet Luke on time.”  

Laurel gets ready to meet Luke, and heads out where she’s supposed to be meeting him.  When she gets to the restaurant, he is already there, waiting for her.  

“Hey sis, it’s been awhile.”  He gets up to hug her, “I know, but you’ve been on Wall Street, how’s that going?”  They sit down at the table after pulling away from the hug.  “Stressful, but not near as bad as it was when I was in the senate.  How are you and Gareth doing?”  

“Fine, his sister is coming up to visit in a few days and I’ve never met her, so, we will see how this goes.”  Luke chuckles at her, “I’m sure it’ll be okay, how was inauguration weekend with your republican?”  

“He actually is handling it a lot worse than I am, he hates Trump.”  Luke raises an eyebrow at her in confusion, “He hates the way Trump treats people with disabilities and knows he’s an idiot.”  

“I didn’t even think about that, if I was in his position, I’d hate him for the same reasons, instead, I hate him for everything.”  Laurel’s phone rings in her bag before she can respond, she looks at it, seeing that it’s Gareth and answers it.  

“Luke, I hate to do this, but I have to go.  Gareth is sick, and needs me to get him at work.”  Luke gets up with her, “I’ll go with you.”  They take Luke’s car since Laurel came in a cab, and head to the senate offices.  

 

“Hey, Gareth said he was sick, is he in his office?”  The secretary points to his office door, “Yeah, he said you’d be here.”  Luke follows Laurel into his office.  

When they get in there, Gareth is sitting with his head on his desk, “Gareth, honey, are you alright?”  Gareth groggily lifts his head up, “Yeah, hey Luke, how’s Wall Street?”  

“It’s a lot better than you look right now, what’s wrong man?”  Laurel walks over to Gareth, “Luke, shut up,” she feels Gareth’s forehead, moving his hair out of his face, “What’s wrong? You don’t feel like you’re running a fever.”  

“I got off the phone with my mom, and Cathy can’t come to D.C. right now, they didn’t say why.  But when I got off the phone with her, I just threw up again.”  Laurel kneels down next to his chair, “Okay, let’s go home.  You need to rest.”  She helps him up and they head back out to Luke’s car to go to their apartment.  

 

“I’ll get you some water, go lie down in bed.”  Laurel tells Gareth as they walk into their home, “Laurel, do you need me to do anything?”  Luke asks, following her into the kitchen.  “No, that’s okay.  I’m sorry we had to cut our breakfast short, though.  Do you head back to New York today?”  

Laurel gets a cup of water, and some crackers for Gareth.  “Yeah, I gotta be at the airport in about an hour.  I’m gonna go see how mom is doing, call me if you need anything.”  He hugs her and heads out the door.  

Laurel goes into their bedroom, where Gareth is, “Hey, you feeling any better?”  Laurel sets the crackers and water on the nightstand, and sits on the edge of the bed.  “Come lay down with me.”  Gareth says, reaching an arm around her waist.  

Laurel crawls across him and lies down next to him, he repositions himself so that Laurel can lay her head on his chest.  “Gareth, I know you’re worried about Cathy, and the current political system, which I am too.  But, I think we will be okay.  Alright?”  

Gareth presses his lips to the crown of her head, “Thank you.  I love you.”  

“I love you too, Gare.”    


	41. The Scandals of a Liberal: The Story of a Panty-less Laurel Healy at a Republican Dinner Party

“Laurel, just get dressed.”  Gareth says, getting annoyed.  “Gareth, it’d be a lot easier to get dressed, if the dress wasn’t so ugly.”  Gareth gets up from the couch, and walks over to their bedroom door.  “Please, for the love of all things good in the world, put the dress on.  They sent it over for you, please wear it.”  He presses a kiss to her forehead and walks back over to the couch.  

“Fine, but I’m not gonna wear underwear with it.”  Gareth’s head falls back on the couch, he rakes his hand over his face.  “Laurel, Jesus Christ, just get dressed.”  

 

“Babe, the car is here, let’s go!”  Gareth opens the front door, and Laurel walks out of their bedroom, straight out the front door.  She stops once she gets to the bottom step outside.  “Hey Gare, guess what?”  He walks down the stairs, “What, Laurel?”  

She fixes his bowtie, and leans in to whisper in his ear, “I didn’t wear any underwear.”  Gareth pulls away from her and goes to the car, holding the door open for Laurel.  “Let’s just go.”  Laurel gets into the car, smirking at him.  

 

During dinner, as another senator is speaking on stage, Laurel leans over to Gareth, “Hey, give me your hand.”  Gareth looks at her, confused and holds his hand out.  “Why?”  She raises an eyebrow, smirking at him.  She pulls his hand down to her leg, right where the slit in her dress is.  

She slides his hand up her inner thigh, “Laurel, we are at a very important dinner.”  He sounds like he’s scolding a toddler, which Laurel finds hilarious.  “What’s the difference between this and a planetarium?”  He looks at her with a look to say, ‘Is that a real question?’  

“Laurel, that was in private.  There’s a lot of people here.”  She slides his hand up further until it’s at the very top of her leg.  “Nobody will notice, I promise.”  Gareth smiles at her, before leaning in to kiss her.  As their lips connect, his fingers search for her center.  He pulls away, scooting his chair closer for easier access.  

 

“Laurel, how did you enjoy Senator Roy’s speech tonight?”  If Laurel was being honest, she hadn’t listened to anyone’s speeches, she was too busy focusing on not letting everyone know what Gareth was doing under the table.  “Well, I didn’t exactly agree with everything, but the speech was nice.”  

Gareth wraps an arm around her waist, leading her over to yet another republican senator.  “Laurel, Gareth, so nice to see you guys! How’s Luke doing?”  She shakes his hand, after Gareth, “He’s fine, living the dream on Wall Street.”  She looks around, trying to find a bathroom to escape to.  

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.”  She walks quickly to the other side of the room, Gareth following close behind.  

 

When they get to the hallway where the restrooms are, the only people there, Gareth speaks up, “Laurel, you alright?”  She stops as he grabs her waist.  “Yeah, just a little lightheaded, that’s all.  I’ll be fine, go back out there.”  He grips her waist a bit harder, “Hey, something’s up, what is it?”  

“I just don’t want to be here, Gareth.  Is that not obvious? I have so much shit to do for my documentary, and instead, I’m here doing damage control for the republican senate, after that goddamn bug incident.”  He pulls her into a hug, rubbing her back.  “It’s okay, we can leave early if you want.”  

Gareth leads her outside, taking the doors nobody would see them leave from.  “This dress really does suck, I hate you.”  They’re not even to the street yet, and Laurel is still complaining about the dress.  

“You know, I’m kinda glad you didn’t wear any underwear tonight,” Gareth says, taking Laurel’s hand, “because it really suits you.”  They walk on to their apartment, Laurel ready to get out of her dress, and Gareth ready to help her out of it. 


	42. Sketchbook Prompt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be posting a couple stories written by my co-author, Mary Beth, enjoy!

One, two, three light switches and the darkness of the office is all around me. The capital is dead silent except for my heels, their clicks the only thing separating me from the emptiness. I hail a taxi, sink into the seats, and breathe for what feels like the first time in eleven hours. All I can think about is going home to my fiancè, well kind of, and throwing politics out the window, at least until anything related to conservative views is mentioned and Gareth goes off on another “let’s have six kids and raise them in a Christian household in the middle of nowhere Indiana” tangent. The taxi passes a mother and daughter laughing and holding hands and even in the dim streetlight I can see the loving way the mother looks at her child. It’s not that I hate the idea of kids it’s more I hate the chance that I could mess up and repeat my childhood. 

As I stand outside the apartment door all I can hear from the inside is silence. I think back to the empty Capital and wonder if Gareth is even home yet. When the door gives way I’m greeted with broad shoulders, clad in a dark grey tee, hunched over our dining room table with headphones lazily thrown atop his head.  As I walk closer I set my bag down and try to peer over his shoulder. He’s quickly dragging a pencil over the page of a notebook with a deep look of concentration and a tensed jaw. I rested my head on top of his and loosely wrapped my arms around his neck. He jumped, but relaxed into my touch with a deep sigh.

“I didn't know you were home.” Gareth said resting his hands on top of my arms.

I dropped my head down onto his shoulder, my face turned into his neck. “You were so focused I didn't want to interrupt you.” I said placing a kiss to his neck. 

He sighed and closed the notebook and set his headphones down beside it. “They're nothing really, just some doodles.”

“I didn't know Gareth Ritter, the Chief of Staff to Republican Senator Red Wheatus ‘doodled’.” I stood up and started to walk towards the kitchen.

“Hey just because I’m not some liberal Democrat doesn't mean I don't have any artistic ability.” He stood up for what seemed the first time in hours, stretched, and sat on one of our bar stools as I started pulling pans from our cabinets.

“This coming from the guy who threw a fit over going to a modern arts museum with me last weekend.” 

“Okay well I didn't want to pay to stand around and look at a bunch of shapes.”

“They aren't just shapes, it's art.” I picked up what was closest to me, which happened to be a pamphlet of the constitution one of us had thrown out of a work bag that always seemed to have more than one copy in it, and threw it at him.

We stood in silence for a few minutes just looking at each other, just existing in our home. 

“So are you going to actually cook anything with that pan or just sit there and hold it?” Gareth asked finally breaking the silence.

“Oh what since I’m the woman you expect me to cook? Do you know how outdated and sexist that is?” I watched him run his hands over his face.

“I swear to God Laurel Healy you will be the death of me. I was literally just asking due to the fact that you already had a pan-”

I couldn't help but to start laughing. “I was joking. I hope you want quesadillas.” 

He got up from the counter and started walking towards the living room muttering about “damn feminists” and “why'd you fall in love with a liberal”.

We were sitting on separate ends of the couch, both of us focused on our work with my legs resting on top of his lap. I kept peeking over the top of my laptop at him, his face scrunched in concentration. 

“Hey.” I said moving my foot to get his attention.

“Hmm.” He answered.

“Heyyy.” I drew out the word trying to get him to look up from his laptop.

“What.” He answered, still not looking up.

“Heyyyyy.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. 

“Heyyyyyyyy.” He sighed and finally looked back at me.

“Yes Laurel what is oh so important for me to stop trying to talk Red off of the verge of declaring war?” 

“Again?” I asked tilting my head to the side.

“Yes again. He really isn't there these days.”

“Well granted he does have half a brain.”

Gareth just stared at me and I could feel myself slowly starting to blush.

“Anyway.” I said pulling myself together. “What were you drawing earlier?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said quickly looking back to his laptop screen.

I huffed and pushed myself up off the couch and started walking towards the dining room table where his notebook lay still. I heard Gareth slam his laptop shut and practically sprint across the floor to reach and snatch the notebook of the table.

“Nope.” He said holding the notebook behind his back. 

I pouted and put my hand on my hip. We held eye contact for a moment before I threw my hands up and started to turn away.  

“Fine if you don't trust your own somewhat fiancé, then so be it.” I walk back to the couch, throw myself down on it, and cross my arms.

Gareth runs his free hand over his face. “We’ll come back to the ‘somewhat fiancé’ later.” He said starting to walk closer to where I sat pouting. “For now I need you to know that I trust you with every bone in my body.” He’s now sitting on the coffee table in front of me holding both of my hands in his, the notebook laying beside him. 

“If you trust me I don’t understand why you would want to keep things from me.” He tilts his head back and groans. I grab my cup of tea from the side table beside me and I walk around the coffee table so that I was facing Gareth’s back. I watch as he dropped his head to his hands and let out a big breath. He slowly sat back up, picked his notebook, and held it towards me. I took it from him and practically ran back to the couch, handing my tea off to Gareth in the process.

I flipped through the notebook slowly taking in scenes of corn fields and scenic depictions of lakes. I can’t help but to smile at the country boy turned D.C. man. The last picture in the book is unfinished, but it displays a barn surrounded by horses and a small girl  walking towards the barn.

“Who’s this?” I asked looking up at Gareth. He moved to sit beside me and put his arm around me. 

“That would be my sister.” I looked up at him to see him smiling.  

I kiss his cheek and lay my head on his shoulder, snuggling into him. “You care about her a lot don’t you?”

“I grew up serving as her protector. Wherever she went, I went. There was never one of us without the other. That’s why moving here was so hard, she was the one who made me take the job. She told me I spent so much of my life taking care of her, that it was time to take care of myself.” He wasn’t on the same couch anymore, he wasn’t even in the same state, he was in the middle of a barn, on a horse farm, with his sister. I set the notebook on the empty cushion beside me and Gareth started running his hand up and down my arm.

“One day I hope to meet her.”

“One day you’ll meet her and it will be my entire world in one room.” 


	43. "We should get a puppy!"

They’ve been sitting at their dining room table for about an hour now, not even eating anymore, just bickering.  “Laurel, I really think you should look at this from my perspective.”  

“Gareth, I’m not having a baby.  Stop bringing it up.”  Which, does not stop Gareth from rambling about how amazing a baby would be for them.  

“...and if we had a baby girl, she’d probably look just like you, but hopefully would be a daddy’s girl, I’ve always wanted a daugh-” 

“We should get a puppy!”  Laurel interrupts Gareth, he looks at her with his eyebrows raised, “A puppy?  Laurel are you alright?”  She gets up and sits on his lap.  “I’m fine, Gareth.  Are you alright? Because for some reason, you think that I want a kid, so you keep pressuring me about it.  So now, I want a puppy.  I was thinking, maybe a rottweiler, or a giant german shepherd that attacks little kids.”  

Gareth rolls his eyes and wraps an arm around Laurel’s waist as she shifts so she’s straddling him.  “Alright, alright, I’ll stop talking about having a baby for a little bit.  Just stop talking about kids being attacked by dogs.  That’s terrible babe.”  

She leans forward and kisses Gareth’s neck.  “Laurel, we eat here at this table.  In fact, there’s still food on the table.”  She sits up and gets off his lap, “Then maybe we should clear the table and put something else on it instead.”  Laurel says, wiggling her eyebrows.  

“You want to have sex on our dining room table?”  Gareth asks, skeptically.  “Yeah, come on.  You want to?”  He gets up out of his chair and starts clearing the table.  “Is that a yes, Gareth?”  He puts the plates in the sink, and looks back at Laurel, with his hand on his hip.  “So, you want me to fuck you on the dining room table, because you don’t want to have a conversation about having a baby?”  

Laurel nods, “Yeah, because when we have sex, you don’t tend to want to have a deep conversation about our future.”  She crosses her arms over her chest.  “Alright, look, how about we just sit down for 20 minutes and discuss the whole ‘baby’ situation.  You tell me all the reasons you don’t want one, and I tell you all the reasons I do.  How’s that sound?”  

“FIne, if it’ll shut you up.”  Laurel and Gareth go into the living room and sit on the couch next to each other.  “I want a baby, because I want a family with you.  I want little kids that look and act like you running around the house.”  

Laurel looks up at him, “I don’t want kids, because I don’t want them to end up like me, I don’t want to end up like my parents.”  Gareth takes her hand, “Laurel, we are not your parents.  Trust me.  I’m not your father, I’m not going to have a thousand affairs while you’re at home with the kids.”  She leans forward resting her head on his shoulder.  

“I know, I just am terrified that that’s going to happen.”  He rubs her back and places a kiss on the top of her head.  “I know, but I will make sure that it doesn’t, got it?”  She nods, “Okay, but I still would prefer a puppy.”  


End file.
